Love Can Thaw
by Number Ten
Summary: Takes place during Season 4. The Snow Queen is hell-bent on casting her spell but decides she needs to eliminate the last bit happiness for her "stubborn," sister Emma, so she will want to be in the new family. Despite help from her friends, all will not go as planned, leaving the Saviour fearful for those she loves the most and Storybrooke in grave danger...
1. Chapter 1: No One's Fault

Chapter 1: No One's Fault

 _This story takes place during Season 4, starting in the middle of Smash the Mirror and further on into Shattered Sight. Including my character Crystal again, but things will not go entirely as planned. She is not just a Mary Sue. Please Read and Review._

 _ **Description of Crystal for readers who have no clue who she is... Thank you to RosettaQueen20 and Taxedelia for the suggestion.**_

 _ **Just so readers know, this is merely a spin-off featuring my character which means the details are going to be slightly different. If you want the "canon" story of Crystal find Once Upon Another Time on my page.**_

 _ **Crystal Lillian Miller is the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin and Lillian Miller. She possesses light and dark abilities, striking a rare balance between her father's darkness and her mother's love.**_

 _ **Much like the fairy tale, Lillian Miller was forced to spin straw into gold but had help from a sinister imp known as the Dark One. However, instead of him wanting her child, the two fell in love with one another. They began a secret affair, despite Lillian being married to the king of a kingdom.**_

 _ **When her mother, Lillian Miller became pregnant with his child, the Dark One feared he would lose his powers by passing it through the blood. He planned to consume the infant's heart to regain that power. He also feared the prophecy of a boy being his undoing would come true. He attempted to convince his secret lover to give up the baby because the infant would have magic that could endanger all of them. Lillian decided to find a place where magic didn't exist and procured a bean for the trip, wanting to take Rumpel with her. When she overheard his true plan, she screamed at him and threw herself and the unborn baby into the portal.**_

 _ **Lillian and her unborn baby ended up in Wonderland for a long time, approximately 10-20 years (the exact time is not known). Since time was frozen, Lillian remained pregnant and remained a handmaiden for the White Queen during that time. For reasons unclear, Lillian eventually ended up in The Land Without Magic and finally gave birth to her child, having hope that her lover's darkness had not followed them. She named the child Crystal, with the hope of purity and goodness would be inside her daughter.**_

 _ **Crystal, however, was tormented by the darkness of her father, manifesting itself as a wicked voice in her head, for most of her life and often obeyed its demands. She was rebellious, hot-tempered and ended up involved in gang culture, drugs, alcohol, arson, felony and other crimes. Lillian knew that her daughter had not escaped the darkness, but she knew that as long they remained in this land, her dark magic would never manifest.**_

 _ **However, this changed after Emma Swan, the Saviour broke the first curse and her father regained his own magic. For reasons unknown, Crystal's magic began to manifest outside of Storybrooke.**_

 _ **When she was sixteen, Lillian had finally had enough and confronted her daughter about her behaviour. A fight broke out between mother and daughter and things became dangerous when Crystal's powers appeared and she grabbed hold of her mother in anger. The darkness was attempting to coerce her into killing her mother, but something inside of her still was good, likely the light and love Lillian had always provided her daughter with. Crystal couldn't do it and rebelled, causing a seismic explosion when both light and dark magic collided. It destroyed the family's home and Lillian was mortally wounded by some dark weapon that her daughter had unknowingly created. Clinging to her mother, Crystal begged for her to stay, but Lillian passed away in her daughter's arms after telling her little girl that she loved her.**_

 _ **This caused a dramatic shift in Crystal's life. She completely changed her life to honour her mother's memory and always wore a golden heart-shaped locket to remind her of Lillian Miller's love and sacrifice. She went to college, got a job, and even fell in love. The one problem was that she tried to suppress her powers and she'd fight the voice in her head. This caused some destruction and created conflict in the girl's life.**_

 _ **Crystal started dating Mason Phelps, who seemed to understand her the best and made her feel accepted. After fighting and making up, Mason told her that he knew who she really was and that he was from that world too. Confused, Crystal found her mother's diary and learned about who she really was. Confused, the girl was pushed over the edge when Mason abruptly broke up with her and she nearly harmed the children she worked with. The girl ran until she knowingly broke through the barrier of Storybrooke and arrived where she truly belonged.**_

 _ **The girl bonded with the heroes of the town, discovering new aspects of her powers, but was wary of finding her father. When she finally met him, she confronted him and brought all his memories to the surface. Her anger towards him fueled when she attacked with vengeance. She made a big spectacle and seemingly gave into her darkness, but once Mr. Gold/Rumpelstiltskin confessed that he did love her mother, she stopped. It's all she ever needed to hear and to make peace with herself and her father.**_

 _ **Both individuals reluctantly tried to form a relationship, while she experienced some alienation from the heroes of Storybrooke due to her powers. That is until Regina reached out to her and made a connection that the girl could accept.**_

 _ **At this point in the story, Crystal has been in and out of Storybrooke, dealing with work and other problems in New York before officially moving to Storybrooke.**_

"It's all my fault," Mary Margret weeps in the loft. "If I hadn't been so harsh with her, she wouldn't have run off."

"You can't blame yourself," her husband says, putting his arms around her.

"You definitely cannot," Elsa adds. "Controlling powers is difficult, that's why I needed Anna in my life. Love is what keeps it under control."

"Henry tried that and he got hurt," the former princess sighs.

Suddenly there's a knock at the door. David opens it to reveal Crystal standing there with a tray of hot chocolate and doughnuts.

"Hey, how's Henry doing?"

"How did you know that happened?" Prince Charming asks quizzically.

"News travels fast in small towns," she answers. "Plus, I saw the damage at the station. Are you okay?"

"Yes and so is Henry."

"Emma's been pushed over the edge I gather. A hole in the station and a hydro pole. The worst I did was a mailbox."

David, tolerant of Crystal's sarcasm, sighs heavily. "You tend to pop up when you aren't exactly needed," he says, not needing someone to point out the obvious.

"Bad habit I picked up from my dad," she shrugs before coming into the loft and putting everything down on the counter. "Still no sign of Emma huh?"

"We're not sure whether we should be worrying about her or the Snow Queen," he hisses quietly. "Family always comes first, but…"

"The whole town is in danger I know," Crystal nods as she hands hot chocolate with cinnamon to everyone. "And from the looks of it, Emma needs to get her powers under control soon."

"The Snow Queen played on her weakness of being alone and feeling abandoned, provoking the powers, to begin with," Snow points out, taking the warm cup from Rumpel's daughter.

"That's all it takes Snow, one shred of doubt and everything can go to hell. It happened to me when Mason dumped me…" She swallows hard, trying to push his image from her mind. Recovery from the break-up had been hard and she was just starting to get on with her life. "One text and I nearly destroyed an aquarium and hurt many people." The girl then goes to the cradle and lifts baby Neal up to spend some bonding time with him.

Elsa looks at her with wide eyes. "What is an aquarium?"

"It's where people can look at underwater life. It has places for fish and other sea creatures to live," she explains.

"Sound interesting. Do they have mermaids there?" the queen asks.

"No, but if Emma's going through what Elsa and I went through, she's become unstable. I can remember what happens when I try to suppress my powers for so long and let's just say I caused a lot of property damage."

"How did you get control of it…?" Elsa tries to ask.

There's a knock at the door, causing everyone to jump. Rumpel's daughter places the baby back down and lights her hands up in case Emma came back and her powers were still in the questionable state. David opens it to reveal Hook in a very panicked mode.

"Any luck?"

"Would I be here if there was?" the pirate snaps. He sighs. "Sorry mate, I'm just…"

"Upset, we know, we all are but that's no reason to scare everyone."

"Or swing that curved death stick around," Crystal adds sarcastically.

Everyone glares at the girl and she shuts up, knowing her comment was uncalled for. She guiltily sits on the kitchen island, out of everyone's way.

"I have every dwarf out, searching in the mines; the fairies are searching the east side of town; I even have the bloody werewolf trying to track her… and still nothing."

The one-handed pirate sits down on a chair, in which Crystal offers him a cup of hot chocolate as a peace offering for her earlier comment, but he pushes it away. "I appreciate it Crystal, but not now."

The daughter of the Dark One bites her lip, thinking about the easiest way to track down anyone and she hadn't thought about it until now. She knows that Emma is in serious danger, especially with the Snow Cone Queen running around, wanting all of Storybrooke to be destroyed so it's just her, Elsa and Emma as "sisters". But if the Saviour knew what she did about her abilities, there would no longer be a problem.

"I'm going to join the search," she lies as smoothly as she can, hopping off the counter. "I'll join Blue and the fairies in the east."

"Why not take a different direction to find Emma?" Mary Margret asks.

"An extra set of eyes in any direction is worth a lot and I'll cover more ground too. I'll head north east from there. I'll text David if I find anything."

"Please be careful," David warns. "We already have one unstable sorceress, we don't need two."

"I'll be careful," the girl nods before she snaps her finger and teleports.

…

Crystal appears in the forest, not far from the toll bridge. She sighs heavily, hating the next part.

"Alright… you, come out and play."

 _Miss me, dearie?_ The voice in her head asks with a high-pitched giggle.

The young adult groans. Why did the voice have to take on the persona of her father? His voice was annoying enough and it made her want to strangle herself. It nearly drove her to insanity every time she heard it. She would've taken Gilbert Godfrey's screechy voice or Chris Tucker's voice from _The Fifth Element_ , or even Alvin from the Chipmunks, those she can tolerate, but this… just drives her over the edge. She launches a ball of light at a nearby tree, taking off a branch in frustration.

"Like the way I miss a tooth ache, I need your help finding Emma."

 _Ah yes, the Saviour is in need of saving, is she?_

"From herself. I know Henry tried to talk to her and he got hurt, but I have magic so hopefully, I'll be safe."

 _You willing to take the risk?_

"If I didn't would you be here?"

 _Point well taken_

"So, Henry said he saw her in the foothills, just on the edge of the giant Snow Wall…" she mutters.

She closes her eyes and puts her hand on the ground. She needs her special vision to take over again; the one that allows her to see people for who they truly are and detect magic within their energies. She can feel the vibrations in the Earth, magic flowed under Storybrooke after all, but she is looking for Emma's light magic… her Saviour's magic.

She opens her eyes and her vision has blurred to a dark blue hue, allowing her to see trails of lighter magic. She begins hiking through the forest in search of a trail. She walks for what feels like an hour or more when she sees a faint trail of white energy. She looks up at a nearby tree and sees there are splotches of white magic everywhere… On the trees, on the ground and even some residue lingering in the air.

"This is getting worse," Crystal murmurs to herself.

She follows the "light" trail until she sees a yellow bug car parked on the top of a slope. Its lights are flashing constantly and she can see Emma's blonde hair just peeking over the hood of the vehicle. The scared woman is leaning against her car, shaking slightly and fearing for her safety.

Remembering what happened to Henry, Crystal decides to approach very carefully.

She sends a purple orb towards the patch of blonde hair. Her hand is glowing slightly, pleased with the magic lessons she'd taken from her father and Regina, now she could do all kinds of neat things with her powers. She then speaks to the light on her hand, almost like the mouthpiece of a telephone.

"Emma?"

The Saviour nearly jumps out of her skin, causing one of her headlights to explode in a flurry of light.

"It's okay, calm down,"

"C-Crystal, is that you?"

"Yeah, unless you were expecting John Wayne, in which case I'll wait with you…"

"How did you find me?" Emma asks, turning around to see Crystal standing several feet away and ignoring the sarcastic comment.

"I followed your trail of magic. It's part of my gift."

"Well, **_my_** gift nearly got my son killed. You need to leave before I hurt you or anyone else."

"You know it was an accident. That's why I opted to speak to you from a distance first."

"Crystal, I mean it, you have to get out of here!" The ground around them seems to shake slightly as Emma's energy levels continue to fluctuate with her emotions.

"Not until I talk to you first."

"We've talked, now leave!"

"Emma, you're not the only one to go through this..."

"I said leave!" Emma shouts, but a wave of magic emphasizes her answer too much. Crystal is blasted backward, but she uses her own magic to cushion the blow. She stands up again, not hurt at all and used to such things as she's created similar shock waves in the past.

"You see what's happening. I'm a danger to everyone. You have to go."

"It's harder to hurt someone with magic themselves," Crystal says. She takes a few cautious steps forward. "Look, Emma, I'm fine. Your magic can't hurt me. I can protect myself. Just listen to me, please. You and I both know that we were born with magic and for the longest time, we didn't want it."

"I don't want it now. I have to get rid of it!"

"I know the feeling but suppressing it won't help, trust me, I spent many hours a day with my veins burning with the power. It hurt like hell because it built up inside of me and I was extremely scared I'd hurt the kids I was working with… but by some miracle, it didn't happen."

"I know because love saved you, but it can't save me. Henry already tried that and I won't let it happen to anyone else."

"But it wasn't love, Emma. It was…"

Before she can finish, Emma gets into her car and speeds away, not wanting to hear any more. Her car vanishes in a cloud of smoke. Crystal sighs, she knows she could track Emma again, but what was the point if she was too scared to listen. She sighs and snaps her fingers, vanishing from the forest completely.

She appears on the eastern side of town and begins walking towards _Granny's_ for a glass of water, or maybe something stronger.

Suddenly, there's a slight chill in the air, sending a shudder of the girl's spine. Her heart pounds anxiously and her hands glow with anticipation of a fight. She turns to see Elsa walking towards her.

"Oh God Elsa you scared me!"

"My apologies, although usually, the drop in temperature gives me away."

"I thought you were your aunt."

"Understandable," the queen of Arendelle says, her long blue dress sparkling in the afternoon sun.

"What are you doing all the way out here?"

"I came looking for you."

"Why me?"

"Because back at Snow White's home, I sensed that you were not telling us the whole truth when you said you were going to search with the fairies on the eastern side of town. And it turns out I was correct."

"How did you… okay fine, you got me, I managed to track Emma down."

"How?"

"You know I have magic, right?"

"Yes. You are Rumpelstiltskin's long-lost daughter?"

"Yes, well I have this special ability, something unique to only me. It's kind of hard to explain, but I can sense other people's energies, I can see their auras I guess. And then there's this special sight I can use to tell who people really are, as well as see their hearts."

"How is that possible?"

"I don't really know, anyway I decided to use this power to track down Emma."

"And did you find her?"

"I did."

"Is she all right?"

"Physically yes, but emotionally she's like Rose after she let Jack sink into the ocean."

"Who is this Rose and Jack? Are they friends of yours?"

"It's a movie or… uh… a moving picture on that magic box you've seen. Anyways, Emma is seconds away from levelling a town block. She's as fragile as a glass slipper."

"So, what did you intend to do once you found her?"

"I just wanted to talk to her, tell her that she needs more than love to control her powers she needs…"

"Acceptance," Elsa finishes.

"Exactly, self-acceptance. Once I knew who I was as a person and understood what was happening, my powers were under control."

"And you learned what you were capable of. I did the same thing, once I stopped hiding them, I created life and even made myself an ice castle. I created beautiful things once I had control."

"Wish I could've seen that, but the point is, you can't have one or the other, you need both. Emma needs to accept who she is and know that she is still loved, not feared and everything will be under control again."

"And we can go back to stopping my aunt and finding Anna," Elsa finishes.

"Right, the problem is that she won't listen. She ran away before I could tell her this. She's convinced that she needs to get rid of her powers. She's as stubborn as her parents are."

"But she can't get rid of her powers," Elsa says. "It's what makes her special."

"I know and we need to make her see that."

"But where would she go if she wanted to remove her powers?"

Crystal swallows. "The only person who knows more than anything about magic."

"Who?"

"My dad."


	2. Chapter 2: Trust No One

Chapter 2: Trust No One

"DAD!" Crystal calls into his shop. "Dad, where are you?"

"I feel sorry for you for having such an unpleasant man to raise you," Elsa whispers sympathetically.

"Oh, trust me, he did not raise me, all he gave me were the powers… Dad!"

The haggard and shadowy figure of Rumpelstiltskin appears from behind the curtain of his shop. He comes behind the counter as his daughter and Elsa approach him.

"Settle down Crystal, half the neighbourhood can hear you. To what do I owe the visit? And why is the Ice Queen with you?"

"We need information and we need it now," his daughter answers

"I already told you, I don't know where her sister Anna is."

"Not that, is it possible for someone to have their powers removed?"

"With a magic canceling cuff, yes…"

"No, I mean permanently…"

"Most of the time… no, powers are often here to stay, you are born with them and therefore they can never go away."

"Like my dark abilities," Crystal mutters.

"You always did get the better half of me," Rumpel smirks.

A nearby China figure shatters shards all over the counter as his daughter glares at him.

"Mom was better than you in every single way, the fact that she loved a monster is nothing short of impressive. You're nothing but a…"

"Has Emma come to you at all?" Elsa inquires quickly, not wanting the fighting to escalate.

Rumpelstiltskin looks from his daughter's face to the queen's and back. "Why would Emma come to me?"

"Her powers are out of control and she's scared," Elsa explains. "We thought she might've come to you about getting rid of them."

"No," he lied smoothly. "She hasn't been here if I'm not mistaken, she's been out in the woods all night and running away after she hurt her father and my grandson."

"It wasn't her fault…" Elsa protests, but her companion is no longer listening.

As Elsa speaks, Crystal raises her eyebrow and her stomach twists once. Maybe Emma was rubbing off on her, but something wasn't right. The girl hardly ever trusted her father and this was one of those times. She slowly lets her vision take over, she can see her father's dark silhouette and his blackened heart beating briskly, she can see Elsa's light blue/white energy and beating red heart too, but she can also see something else. Magic… the residue of magic… it is pure white, much like the kind of energy trail she found in the woods. Crystal subtly looks up once and sees a shattered light bulb above. She quietly clenches her fist, trying to act normally. Once Elsa is done, Crystal speaks up.

"Dad, are you sure there's no way to get rid of someone's powers, even drastically?"

"No, there is not," he says firmly.

"Okay, well thanks for the information, we need to go back to help Hook with the search, call me if you do see her."

"Will do… Crisi."

Crystal grinds her teeth together in anger, glaring once at her father before grabbing Elsa's wrist and guiding her from the shop.

Once they are a safe distance away from the shop, Crystal faces Elsa.

"Did your father just call you Crisi?" the queen of Arendelle asks in confusion.

"It's a nickname, anyway not important. We need to find Emma right now!"

"Why?"

"Because my dad's going to do something to her?"

"How do you know?"

"My special vision showed me residue of Emma's magic all over the shop, plus a light bulb above us was broken. Emma did the same thing to her headlight."

"What is that?"

"Elsa, focus, please! He's lying to us, he has something to hide. We have to track Emma down now. I have a feeling that my dad promised to remove her powers, but instead, he's going to use her for something…"

"Like what?"

"No idea, but my dad is not to be trusted. He's as deceptive and as evil as Norman Bates working in a steak knife factory."

"What…?"

"Didn't Regina say that she was making a locator potion?" Crystal asks.

"Y-Yes,"

"Then we need something of Emma's and a sample of that potion…"

…

Crystal enters the apartment, deciding that Elsa should stand outside just in case her father followed them; their signal for him was frost on the window. The two know that they have to speak to Emma alone, they are the only ones who can understand what she's going through. They knew Emma needs her family, but she also needs understanding, something none of her loved ones can give in this situation. The stakes are raised much higher not that Crystal suspects that her father might do something to the Saviour. Not wanting to put anyone else in danger, the two know they have to do this themselves. Luckily, the only ones' present in the room are Mary Margret and her infant son. Everyone else must be out looking for Emma.

"Any luck?" the worried mother asks.

"No, but we may have a lead," Crystal says. "Elsa and I have searched by the _Rabbit Hole_ and some of the backwoods, but nothing yet. We may have found tire tracks in the dirt. I just need to grab a phone charger as mine's dying." She tries to act as indifferently as possible, but very quickly. She climbs the ladder to Emma's room in the loft. Thinking quickly, she grabs Emma's red scarf, shoves it into her coat pocket, grabs a phone charger from the wall and hurried back down.

Fortunately, Regina has now arrived and is talking with Mary Margret. The former Evil Queen has more than just locating the Saviour on her mind, but also unfreezing her lover's wife. She has a bottle of light blue liquid with her and Crystal knows immediately that it's the locator spell. When the mayor places it on the table, the girl pretends that she's listening, but trying to find a way to get the bottle. Thinking quickly, she conjures up a bottle filled with liquid matching the one on the table and then she uses her telekinesis to cause a cup to fall to the floor and smash. Unfortunately, this frightens little Neal, making her feel guilty, but this distracts the women long enough for her to make the switch.

"Sorry little buddy," she whispers, pocketing the potion. "I'm going to follow up on that lead."

"O-Okay," Mary Margret says, handing her son to Regina so she can clean up the mess.

"Wait, what…"

Crystal shuts the door before the former queen can ask any more questions. She meets Elsa in the alley behind Nolan's loft.

"Did you get it?" Elsa asks.

"I pulled a quick switch. So how does it work?"

"I think you apply the potion to the item and then follow it." Elsa assumes.

"Okay, let's hurry because the sun's going down and it will be harder to find her in the dark."

Crystal takes the top of the bottle and Elsa holds the scarf. After applying a few drops, the scarf leaps into the air and begins floating away. The two women are in awe for a moment, looking at magic in action, but they soon snap out of it and follow the object at a quick pace. The long, slender thing almost acts as an arrow, pointing them towards their friend Emma.

"Hurry," Elsa pants.

The two are lead to the far side of town, an area unfamiliar to Crystal. The scarf goes to a house, a large mansion. There are some lights flickering inside. The Dark One's daughter lets her vision take over, she can see a large mass of energy inside. It looks very powerful and has a weird shape. She can also see Emma's silhouette within the confines of the house.

"My dad put something inside there, something with a lot of power. We have to hurry."

The scarf leads them to the back door, which it then drops to the ground. Scooping it up, Elsa hurries inside, when Crystal senses that something is very off.

"Aren't you coming?" the snow queen asks.

"I will just give me a second, just start talking to her."

"Okay, but be careful…" the platinum blonde warns before vanishing inside.

Crystal can feel the dark energy radiating from inside, but something else is out here.

Without warning, something hits her from behind, freezing her on the spot. She is unable to move, she looks around frantically, trying to find her attacker, but sees none.

However, in the shadows of the home, Rumpelstiltskin frowns.

"We never can trust each other, can we?" he murmurs. He then teleports to the front of the house to meet a very distressed pirate.


	3. Chapter 3: No One to Tell

Chapter 3: No One to Tell

Crystal sighs in heavy frustration. She's completely embolized and she knows who did it. Clearly, her dad wanted to keep her from ruining his plans… whatever they might be. She tries to concentrate on the energy within herself, creating a barrier between her father's spell and her body. She shuts her eyes and takes a deep breath. She can only hope that Elsa saves Emma before whatever's in the mansion gets to her first.

She hears noises coming from in front of the house. It sounds like talking. She knows one of them is her father because he's the one who froze her, but the other... She pushes herself to focus on the unknown voice. It's definitely another male and it's heavily accented… which could still mean any number of Storybrooke patrons. She wants to know what is going on the inside and outside of this place.

Suddenly, one of the voices screams out in pain. It's familiar, but she still can't quite place it. She begins straining herself, trying to fight against her father's grip. She knows she doesn't have enough power to fight him alone, even though on multiple occasions she has been able to overpower him. She realizes what she's going to have to do. The only thing powerful enough to break the spell's hold.

She shuts her eyes and takes a deep breath. She begins thinking about Mason and how angry and confused she still was with him. He broke up with her via text message, the most impersonal way you could do it. Surely their relationship meant more for him to at least do it in person. But the big question remained… why? Yes, they did have their ups and downs, but the two were working together, he helped her discover her past and they had even said I love you. Then he vanishes completely with no explanation, leaving her heartbroken. She can feel the rage building up inside of her, how none of this made any sense and that the man she loved had left her. It feels as if her body is shaking a little bit from fury inside.

Her veins begin to burn with emotion, the power building up inside of her. She feels upset, her body wants to respond accordingly, but she can't cry because of the stupid spell. She knows she'll have to bring out the big gun in order to break her father's hold over her and release the energy. She thinks about that night… the night that still haunted her dreams. The night she lost everything important to her, the night she almost became truly evil. The night she killed her mother.

 _You are a murderer…_ the voice says, manifesting itself in her mind again. Inwardly, she groans, convincing herself that this is necessary in order to help.

 _Your mother could never love you after that. You became a broken girl that night… an orphan. You destroyed the one thing that gave you hope._

The conflict within Crystal grows, she tries to fight the voices, arguing inside that they weren't true…

 _You embraced the darkness and blood had to be spilled._

 _It's not true, it was an accident!_ she thinks.

 _It was a night I was truly proud of you…_ the voice chuckles.

That's the final straw and the energy explodes outwards in a seismic wave. There is a definitive boom as the plants in the mansion garden blow sideways with the energy and flowers are completely decapitated. The night air is briefly filled with the echo of the daughter of the Dark One's emotional energy expanding outwards, breaking her father's spell. Crystal manages to move her limbs again and she stretches out, happy to be free again.

Unbeknownst to her, the wave of power entered the mansion and ended up closing the Sorcerer's hat. Elsa and Emma felt it but assumed that it was the Saviour, finally accepting her magic, creating a wave of relief. Rumpel and Hook felt it as well. The Dark One was grasping the pirate's beating heart with the intention of using it to free himself from the dagger's control and nearly crushed it. Hook gasped out in pain. Rumpel knew what this meant… his daughter was coming to confront him. He also realized that Emma has not been sucked into the hat, meaning he had to find another way to charge it. He gave the pirate captain his parting words before teleporting away, allowing Killian to free himself from the fence and go find Emma.

Crystal immediately goes towards the front of the house, where the cry of pain came from. She can see that the bright source of energy is gone. She wants to go and see if Emma and Elsa are okay, but she had to find her father first.

She sees the remains of the garden hose that held Killian to the fence and she can feel her father's dark energy still lingering in the air. She looks at the remains before going to find her friends.

To her surprise, the trio exit the front door.

"Is everything okay?" Crystal asks, as Emma, Hook and Elsa exit the Apprentice's mansion.

"Everything is fine," Emma smiles, having her arms linked with Killian. She lays her head on his shoulder.

"So, no more freak outs?" Rumpel's daughter asks.

"Not anymore."

"And you're keeping the powers?"

"Elsa made me realize that I need self-acceptance, not just love to control them."

"I could've told you that back in the woods, but you kind of drove away before I could."

"I'm sorry Crystal, but you can understand how I was feeling…"

"Of course."

"I was being stupid and impulsive, I wasn't thinking clearly. I should've listened to the people who had been where I was. I thought I could handle it on my own."

"We live and learn Emma," Crystal says before embracing her friend. She then looks over at Killian and Elsa.

"What happened to you, Crystal?" Elsa asks. "I thought we were going to tell her together."

"I got sidetracked," she explains. "Something distracted me, but it seems like you did a pretty good job on your own."

"Indeed," the queen of Arendelle nods.

The two women begin trying to explain to Crystal what happened, but she's tuned them out. Her gaze lands on the one-handed pirate of the group. Immediately she senses that something is wrong. He seems phased and distracted. He must've been the one screaming… He's the one who confronted her father… the two do have a very rough history, to say the least, but why would Killian scream? He looked okay, no wounds or maybe…

Crystal lets her vision take over. She can see that his heart is missing, there is a black hole where his heart should be. She can also see that powerful source of energy within his pocket. However, she's more concerned about the fact that Captain Hook's heart is gone.

She opens her mouth to say something when Mary Margret, David, Regina, and Henry all come up the path of the mansion.

"Emma thank god we were so worried," he mother says, embracing her daughter tightly.

"Are you okay?" her father asks.

"I'm fine now," the Saviour says, she embraces her son tightly.

Crystal feels a bit frustrated. Obviously, they think that this little dramatic episode has a happy ending, but Emma's boyfriend has no heart and it's obvious to her that her father has it. Her mind is racing, trying to figure out why Rumpelstiltskin needs Captain Hook's heart.

As the others reunite with hugs, the daughter of the Dark One continues to stare at Killian. Eventually, his bright blue eyes meet hers. She expresses her concern without words. He looks at her almost desperately, but suddenly he grimaces. No doubt, his heart is being squeezed. She tries to say something, but then her phone buzzed in her pocket.

Hesitantly, she opens the message.

It's from her father.

 _ **I'm sorry I had to restrain you earlier, but I can't have you ruining my plans. I hope you will not be too angry. I cannot tell you what my plans are, but I guarantee that it will benefit our family for the better. I didn't realize until now that you would figure it out much quicker due to your ability. Think of this as a warning, you breathe one word of this to the Saviour, Belle, or anyone else and the pirate suffers. I will make sure his remaining existence on this earth is painful. I know you insist on caring for him and all the others like they are your family, but keep in mind, I am the one who gave you life. I do have paternal feelings toward you and as your parent, I can punish you how I see fit. The consequence for talking will end the pirate's life, I can punish you by punishing him. I'll see you at home later, Goodnight.**_

Crystal swallows very hard, fighting back tears. Her father just threatened her... She cannot believe it. She wanted to believe Belle when she said her father had changed for the better, but this text message told the complete opposite. He was bullying her into silence, using the excuse that he was still her father, so she had to obey him. She couldn't believe he'd stoop so low. It's worse than a serial killer forcing his children to participate in the murders or they'll be grounded. She's extremely angry, but then again, he was Rumpelstiltskin, she should expect this type of thing from the Dark One.

Her heart pounds in her ears as she looks at Killian. She can tell he's as scared as she is, but she can't let him suffer. He's basically her father's puppet now and she's helpless to stop it. He doesn't meet her eyes anymore, and she swallows a lump of guilt in her throat.

She turns her attention back to her friends as Regina asks for the real locator potion back.

"I'm sorry Regina," she says, handing the bottle back.

"It's all right, just don't pull tricks like that when they can have serious consequences, we're lucky nobody got hurt or killed in this incident."

Almost… she thinks to herself.

Emma's hands begin to glow with white light and Crystal looks up as the Saviour creates fireworks and conjures up Northern Lights into the night sky. She is showing the beauty that her powers had. Like Elsa and her ice castle, good can come from such powers.

Crystal wasn't sure if her abilities could be as beautiful, after all, they mostly came from the darkness. She did have her moments when her hands glowed a lilac colour and the orbs she created were pretty great, but all she can really do is create destruction and snuff out the light… it's what darkness does. A darkness that she shares with her demonic father.

Despite the amazing show, her mind is elsewhere, trying desperately to figure out a way to stop her father's plan without getting Killian killed in the process. She can't tell anyone, she is on her own.

Once the show is over, everyone decides it's time to head home. Crystal and Regina bring up the rear. The young girl doesn't want to go to her apartment tonight, no doubt her father will be watching her. She doesn't feel safe in her home anymore.

"Hey Regina," she asks casually. "Do you mind if I crash at your place tonight?"


	4. Chapter 4: No One Will Believe Me

Chapter 4: No One Will Believe Me

"Belle, I'm telling you he's up to something," Crystal insists as Belle reorganizes a stack of books in the library.

The daughter of Rumpelstiltskin knew that she couldn't keep this secret to herself and spent all night trying to find out who to tell. She knew Emma and her family were too busy trying to stop the Snow Queen from casting her curse, while Elsa was distracted with finding Anna and then Regina with trying to unfreeze Marian, so she crossed them off her list. She knew the town's safety relied on all the heroes, but she had to try and help Hook in some way. If she wanted to be a hero, she'd have to try and do something. She knew she'd have to do this in secret so she was teleporting very quietly and staying in the shadows, hoping her father wasn't following her. She decided on the only person who would have the time to listen, which was her new step-mother. Belle of all people should know that her father was far from perfect and could easily deceive others, but the more she talks to the librarian, the more it seemed that this is not true.

"He froze me last night."

"How can you be sure it's him?"

"The demographic with magic is pretty darn small, plus I know where Elsa and Emma were when it happened."

"What about Regina, she could've done it to prevent you from hurting Emma or you hurting yourself."

"I wasn't going to hurt Emma."

"Then maybe she did it to prevent you from getting hurt so she could handle it herself. She is more experienced with magic after all."

"Then why didn't she stop Elsa as well?" Crystal snaps back.

Belle pushes a cart of books down one of the aisles, trying to escape Crystal's bantering, but the girl follows right beside her.

"I don't have the answers Crystal, I just think you're misreading the situation. You don't have the evidence to create a valid argument."

"He did it so I wouldn't interfere with whatever he's planning."

"Crystal, we've been through this, your father is not planning anything anymore. He has changed for the better."

The young girl rolls her eyes in frustration. "Look, I'm happy you two got married, more power to you and actual happiness for him. Yay, but he's still the Dark One and he will do whatever he wants whenever he wants."

Belle puts a few books on the shelves of the fantasy section before turning to her step-daughter. "If that were true, would he have given me the Dark One dagger for safe keeping if he was 'planning' something?"

"How do you know it's not a fake?"

"How could you say that Crystal?" Belle sighs, getting frustrated and a little hurt by the implication.

"Because that's the way he's always been, he wouldn't trust anyone, not even his own daughter with the thing that could literally control or kill him."

"Please keep in mind that the first time you came to Storybrooke, you did try to kill him, so I wouldn't blame him for not trusting you completely yet. Besides, I know it's not fake because I used it when Elsa asked about whether he knew about Anna or not."

"Alright, you think it's real, give it to me so I can make him give Hook's heart back and to confess his plan to everyone."

Belle glares at her. "You should be ashamed of yourself Crystal. I will not hand over the dagger just so you can use it to prove a point. That's cruel not just to your father, but to me as well."

"Okay, you want to talk cruelty? How do you explain the fact that Hook no longer has a heart in his chest?"

"Maybe your vision was wrong."

"My vision is never wrong! It's how I was able to see all of you as your true selves when I first came here and it's linked to your energies."

Belle goes behind the main desk of the library. She won't hear any more about her husband. He's made an effort change, she wouldn't have married him if he didn't.

"Magic isn't always stable and things can be deceiving.

Crystal sighs angrily, knowing she's only got one piece of evidence to prove to her stepmother that she wasn't lying.

"Then how about the text he sent me last night, threatening Killian's life…" she grabs her phone and scrolls to the text. She holds it up for Belle to read. There's a pause as Crystal waits for a response.

"I hardly call that threatening."

"WHAT?" the girl looks at her phone. She reads the message over. Instead of the menacing and intimidating text message, it's a bunch of mushy slop about how much Rumpelstiltskin loves her and how he hopes they can have lunch sometime soon.

"Th-That's impossible. The message threatened to hurt Killian if I told anyone."

"Maybe you misread it."

"I DIDN'T MISREAD IT!" Crystal barks angrily. The lights above the front desk flicker in response to her rage. "Dad messed with my phone when I wasn't looking! He has that ability of technopathy you know. It's hard not to misinterpret when someone is threatening death of another person."

"Crystal, please calm down. You're seeing things that are not there. You're just looking for an excuse to villainize your father again. I understand that us getting married is hard for you to handle and you're looking for any excuse to break us up, but it's not going to happen. We love each other and nothing will stand in the way of that again."

The girl blinks in utter disbelief and throws her fist down on the desk so hard, she nearly cracks the surface. "I can't believe this. I thought you were supposed to be the smart one! I love that you two got married, I even gave you a wedding present! The music box that plays the _Beauty and the Beast_ tune. How does that not prove that I support your union?! I actually thought that love would be able to control my dad and give him a reason to route for good, but from what I've seen and been through, he's just as cold-hearted as before."

"Maybe he's not the one who's cold-hearted anymore…" Belle says before disappearing behind several of the book shelves. She won't buy any more of this nonsense. Her step-daughter is telling the same lies that the mirror in the ice queen's cave told her. The fake dagger, that Rumpel doesn't really love her and that he'll always choose power over love.

"I give up!" the daughter of the Dark One snaps. "Just don't come crying to me when your heart gets broken AGAIN. If there's one thing I've learned about Dad is that you can't trust him without being hurt along the way."

Crystal forces the door open and walks away from the clock tower in anger. Of course, her father's plan is working, he has everyone totally fooled and nothing she can say or do will change that.

She hikes through the streets, pulling her jean jacket around herself tightly. She needs to take a walk to clear her head. Her hands flicker with purple, light indicating she was losing control slightly. The girl knows the last thing this town needs is the daughter of the Dark One to lose control. Emma's powers were mostly harmless, but with the darkness flowing through her veins, Crystal knows it would be much worse. At the same time, she must help Killian before her father succeeds with his plan. Obviously, the pirate saw through the Dark One's façade; now he's suffering for it and she can do nothing about it.

Crystal finds her way to the local waterfall deep in the forest. Sometimes she comes here when she needs to think more. The ripples created by the river and the soft white noise calms her down significantly. She begins skipping rocks into the flowing stream as a form of distraction. She's so angry that she doesn't notice the drop-in temperature and that some of the plant life is frosting over.

"Hard, isn't it?" Crystal hears behind her.

 _A/N: Hope a lot of people can relate how frustrating it is when no one believes you. Thank you to any followers. Please read and review._


	5. Chapter 5: No Love for One

Chapter 5: No Love for One

Her heart pounds in her ears when Crystal realizes what the chill in the air meant. She could start seeing her breath and the edges of the stream were beginning to freeze over.

"What do you want?" she asks angrily. Her hands are glowing in anticipation of a fight but clench her fists to keep them under control, not wanting to fight unless she had to.

"I was merely in the neighbourhood and thought I'd stop by to provide warm comfort."

"No part of you is either warm or comforting," Crystal snaps. "You're about as warm as a campfire doused in gasoline and as comforting as a bathtub filled with thumbtacks."

"Oh… hot-headed, just like your father."

"Don't compare me to him…" she hisses angrily. She refuses to turn around and face the ice witch. The woman was like Medusa but instead of turning to stone when looking at her, you'd be turned into a block of ice.

"You're right… you aren't like him. Not entirely anyway, there is love within you, something that is rare in your father's being. That's why you've peaked my interest."

"Why would you care about me?" she asks, finally turning around to meet the woman's gaze.

Ingrid's dressed in her sparkling white gown, her blonde hair pulled up into a bun, glistening icicle earrings dangle from her ears and a single ice crystal hangs from her necklace, which seems to glow in the morning light. She would look very pretty to anyone, except for the fact that she was as cold-hearted as her powers. She has her hands down in front of her, giving no indication of an attack, and gives the frustrated teen a gentle smile. But Crystal knows better than to trust anyone with evil intentions. "I thought Elsa and Emma were the ones you're after."

"Well, yes, until I saw what you could do."

"Since when have you seen what I can do?" the teen presses, slightly creeped out by this.

"I have my ways," Ingrid chortles to herself.

"Is it that mirror you have?" she questions.

"Maybe."

"The mirror that will create the curse that you plan to unleash on Storybrooke?"

"You know about that don't you?"

"Everyone does, besides I used to read a lot of fairy tales when I was younger, and _The Snow Queen_ was among them."

"I never liked the tales in this land, they are so inaccurate."

"Most of them are, but I find yours at least partially accurate. Your heart is indeed a very cold lump of ice."

"On the contrary dear Crystal, my heart is full of love. Love for my sisters that I do not want to lose. Love for the world of magic and the prophecy that will come true."

"That's absolute crap. If you really had love in your heart, you'd know better than to curse the town into destroying one another. That's not loving."

"And what you and your father have is?"

"It's complicated," the girl insists, her hands still clenched into fists. Her special vision shows her the Snow Queen's very pale energy, very blank, almost as white as snow, with a heart that beats more slowly and seemed to glow blue at times. She shudders in the cooling atmosphere and shoves her hands in her jean jacket pockets. Snowflakes begin to fall very slowly around the two of them and the stream is freezing over more rapidly. Most of the time, Crystal likes snowfall, it's very peaceful but she'd prefer that the precipitation came from the sky, not an ice witch.

"So am I."

"Have you ever heard of psychiatry? Maybe that could help you more, I do know someone, he has a good conscience."

"I do not need help, I see quite clearly about what I have to do."

"And what you must do is make everyone kill each other? That's the kind of logic that will get you locked up."

"Like you ought to be?"

"Shut up! Are you just here to taunt me or did dropping my body temperature have a purpose?"

"A good purpose, in fact, I'm here to offer you something."

"What could you possibly give me besides frostbite?"

"I'm here to offer you a chance to be apart of our family."

She blinks in disbelief. "What?"

"I want you to join us, Crystal. Elsa, Emma, you, and I, living happily in this tiny town, no distractions, no evil fathers, no doubting stepmothers. You are just like the rest of us. You know that no one will truly understand you like we do. You can finally leave your father's dark shadow and be your own person. You can be free of being judged and you can use those powers of yours for good."

"I already use them for good," Crystal sighs. She can see her breath cloud is getting thicker and thicker, but her anger continues to grow.

"No as long as your father still exists, you will never be free of his burden. His influence will always be over you and even though the townspeople respect you now, remember what it was like when they first found out about your true past and those powers. They shunned you and insulted you, treated you like an outcast."

Crystal swallows very hard. The painful memory of Snow yelling at her, trying to keep baby Neal away, saying that she was dangerous. The former princess called her a villain and everyone else was scared to be near her, because of what she was and that she couldn't control her powers. She fights back a few tears and shivers more and more in the cold. Her knees buckled slightly from the emotion. It was true that she hated that she'd always be associated with the darkness and her father, and it would be nice not to have to maintain control all the time, but…

"They don't trust you, even your own stepmother wouldn't believe you when you told her about your father acquiring Captain Hook's heart. That must've hurt quite a lot. You can never truly belong here Crystal, you're not like anyone else, but if you agree to join me, we can live a happy life, we'll be among people who understand us. I can even help you find Mason again."

Her head is spinning in a flurry of emotion. The ground beneath her shakes slightly at the mention of her ex-boyfriend. She shakes her head, trying to clear her mind, but she's so overwhelmed to the point of wanting to collapse or maybe it was because this specific patch of forest was becoming Arctic temperatures.

"I know you still miss him, I can see the pain on your face. If you decide to be a part of our family, we can find him again. and I'll let him stay with you. You've been without love for too long now Crisi, but with me, you can have the family you've always wanted."

Something inside of Rumpelstiltskin's daughter shifts. Her heart pounds angrily at her chest, realizing what she'd be agreeing to. She remembers what Regina had said to her after the Snow-White confrontation, the connection she made with the former Evil Queen and the love she felt in those moments. How the former Evil Queen told her about the second chance she was being given to fix her broken self and become the person she wanted to be. This would not happen if she decided to join Ingrid. She'd be losing that love she'd been working so hard to maintain and she already had the family she'd wanted. Granted it wasn't perfect, but it was still her family. For better or for worse, they care about her and she cares about them. Despite the hope given of finding her boyfriend, she knows that this is a lie, it's false hope to lure her in.

"I already have the family I've always wanted. And your spell would just take away from that. You can take your offer and your curse and shove it where the sun doesn't shine you witch because, like Emma and Elsa, I'm not going to throw away what I have for false promises. The only one without love is you"

Ingrid swallows a lump in her throat. She thought for sure that the daughter of the Dark One would want to be rid of her tormentors and her father. Clearly, she underestimated her love for the fools around her. She sighs, knowing that she's going to have to work a lot harder to convince Emma of the same thing. The Dark One's child was expendable at best, and if she did survive the massacre that was coming, she could make a good slave to the three "sisters".

"That's such a shame, I thought we could get along quite well, but if that is what you feel…"

The ice queen suddenly lets out a blast of icy magic, Crystal is blasted backward, barely having time to react. The gust of cold wind pins her to the tree behind them. She looks down and sees that there is a coating of ice slowly growing around her chest, pinning her, one of her arms is immovable now. Knowing her strength won't last much longer in this cold, she lets her hands glow a dark purple, the kind she only uses when she absolutely has to. Crystal uses her still free hand to blast the Snow Cone Queen with a good amount of magic. It hits Ingrid square in the chest and she goes flying backward, her dress sprawling out, making her look like a sparkly ghost floating through the air.

The blonde woman falls onto the soft snow of her own making, allowing her victim to use her powers to free herself from the tree. The shards of ice fall to the ground and Crystal ends up on her knee. She creates a fireball in her hand to warm herself up. She thinks about toasting the queen for good but knows that would be wrong, it would be what her father would've done. She feels the warmth surround her body, giving her the energy she needs to fight back again.

"You're really going to have to fight for your delusional family because all of us have the love we need."

Ingrid slowly fumbles around, trying to get up from her heavy dress and not slipping on the ice.

"That's exactly what I intend to do, tell Emma that she'll want to be apart of my family soon when no one else is left."

She then throws her hands out, ice magic flowing from her fingertips. Crystal watches as the snow begins to swirl faster and faster until there is a large mass in the middle of their battlefield. Her heart catches in her throat as the mass slowly turns its head to glare at its target. The eyes are a dark blue, very hollow, and hungry looking. The spikes on its back raise upwards, made of very sharp icicles and the creature whips its tail around lethally with equally shards of ice. The wings on its back spread out to stretch and to take flight.

It's a snow dragon.

"Oh good lord. Anyone have some anti-freeze?" Crystal gasps.

 _A/N: Disappointed they never used an ice dragon in the show. That would've been awesome. Please read and review_


	6. Chapter 6: Fear of One

Chapter 6: Fear of One

Crystal takes a large step away, knowing that this is going to end very badly if she doesn't get some help.

"Easy boy…" she hisses quietly. "There's no need to…"

The ice dragon lets out a mighty, ear shattering roar before she can finish her sentence. It then swings its tale of sharp shards of ice at the first victim. Crystal ducks to the ground before the tail can spear her completely. It strikes the tree behind her and the oak tree falls into the stream with a loud crash from the impact. Despite narrowly avoiding the tale, she sees red begin to drip onto the white snow. Her shoulder is throbbing and she realizes one of the shards got lodged there. She doesn't have time to heal it, but she will if she can escape and warn the others. The beast looks at her again with hollow and now yellow glowing eyes. It opens its mouth and aims at her. It releases white energy from within and she barely escapes the blast. She ends up behind the creature, but the dragon is still emitting the snow/ice energy, completely freezing the stream and waterfall. It also kills all the plant life that was unfortunate enough to be within the "fire's" distance.

"Oh God, we need help..." she hisses. Despite being wounded and slightly disoriented, Crystal knows that she needs to keep the creature at bay before it can go for another attack on her. She also needs to buy herself some time to warn her family and prepare to fight back. Thinking quickly and ignoring her sore shoulder, fire explodes from her hands and melts the surrounding snow and ice. The heat warms her body enough to give the Dark One's daughter a chance to gather her strength. The dragon shrieks like a banshee and backs away from the very thing that could kill it. Crystal then snaps her fingers to vanish.

…

Meanwhile, back in town, Emma is walking with Killian, drinking coffee, and just merely chatting with one another, enjoying a moment of peace before they get back to stopping the Snow Queen.

"I just think that training lessons with Regina will make us better safe than sorry," she says.

"I agree, Love," Killian says, but his mind is very much elsewhere. If his heart was in his chest, it would be threatening to break his ribcage, but instead, it is in the hands of the bloody crocodile. He has no idea what the Dark One plans to do with it, but he knows he cannot feel the emotions he wants to feel with Emma, and he'll be used like a puppet until Rumpel ends his life to free himself from the dagger. His mind is racing, wondering if Crystal was going to do something, he could tell that she knew what had happened, thank goodness for her ability to see hearts, but he knew that her father wasn't stupid. The pains he felt in his chest was likely from the demonic being squeezing the precious organ, threatening his end to keep the heroic child at bay. He wasn't sure what he could do now, he knew Crystal wouldn't risk his life to stop her father, but there had to be another way, it's what these bloody heroes always did.

Suddenly, there is a loud roar that shakes the ground the couple stand on. Emma drops her coffee and Killian does his best to keep both them balanced.

"What the bloody hell was that?" he asks in a panicked voice. He keeps his hook out in case the danger came after them.

"Probably an attack from the Snow Queen," Emma says, removing her gloves and letting her hands light up.

"That didn't sound like her," the pirate responds.

All around them, people are coming out of buildings and filling the streets to find out what that strange noise was. Regina, Robin, and Henry spot their allies and hurry to meet them.

"Mom, what was that?" Henry asks.

"I don't know," she says.

Regina's hands are also light up in anticipation of a fight and Robin drew his bow.

"Henry, you need to get inside," Regina insists.

"But Mom…"

"Now!" Emma adds with emphasis. "We don't know what's out there."

Several others are beginning to take shelter inside the buildings, fear now outweighing curiosity. The young teen is forced to go inside the Dark Star Pharmacy for safety as both his mothers and their male partners step cautiously into the open street.

The brakes on David truck squeal as he nearly hits the four of them, trying to get to the scene in a hurry. He, his wife, and Elsa hop out of the truck.

"Emma, what's going on?" he asks.

"I don't know, we're as much in the dark as…"

Another loud roar tears through the town, sending everyone's hearts into a frenzy. They all get into battling positions, ready for the impending threat.

"It sounds like some sort of beast," Robin says. "But not a beast that I have ever heard in the forest."

"It's not a banshee either," Snow adds, having her bow at the ready. The new mother was almost paralyzed with fear when she heard the noise but knew she had to help, she was the mayor of the town after all. Fortunately, Ruby was visiting at the time and she was willing to watch their infant son.

"It might be a threat from my aunt," Elsa states, her hands raised.

"We all assumed that Love, but what kind of beast would make that noise," Killian asks. "It's certainly not another monster snowman."

"Or that weird knight she created," Emma adds.

"What other kinds of things can you create Elsa?" Regina asks.

"The kind that can fly," a voice calls from behind. Everyone turns to see Crystal holding her shoulder running towards the center of town and leaving a trail of blood behind her.

"Crystal, what happened?" Snow asks as she finally reaches the group.

"Oh god, you're bleeding," Regina says, she raises her hand to begin to heal it. Crystal sighs with some relief as the throbbing pain in her shoulder begins to fade.

"What happened to you?" Robin asks.

She swallows as Regina finishes her healing and the girl can stand up straight again. She gives one guilty glance at Hook before speaking. She keeps her eyes on Elsa for a moment. "Well, I was off in the woods to do some thinking when I ran into your aunt. Lovely woman, a bit of a psycho though. She began to lower my body temperature and tried to convince me to become one of her sisters."

"Bloody hell not again," Killian groans.

"Yes, again." She responds. "She liked that I had magic and that only she, Emma, and Elsa could truly understand. She attempted to bribe me into joining her, saying that I could finally be a hero, stop being associated with my father and have the family I always wanted. She even tried to use the Mason card to get me to join her, but when I told her to go to hell, she gave me a going away present from that exact place.

"What…"

Another loud roar erupts from within the forest, the snapping of branches and trees can be heard and the sound of two wings flapping echo in the almost deserted town.

A strange looking shape finally emerges from the forest and beings spewing what appears to be snow and ice from its mouth. The foliage that lay in its path to the town is frozen into weird looking ice sculptures, turned pure white and instantly killed from the creature's "fire". It lets out another blood-curdling roar, it's hollow eyes aimed at the tiny town.

"What the hell is that?!" Emma screams.

"That would be the world's most pissed off snow cone…"


	7. Chapter 7: That's a New One

Chapter 7: "That's a New One"

"Maleficent ain't got nothing on this thing," Crystal says as she raises her hands to fight.

"Can you please stop making jokes?!" Emma snaps.

"I'm sorry, it's what I do when I'm scared or bored or annoyed."

The dragon begins circling near the clock tower, obviously looking for a way to attack.

"Well, be prepared to be terrified," Regina says.

"I'd say it was a beautiful creation if it was not so destructive," Elsa says.

Robin and Snow let arrows fly at the thing without a second thought. The tiny aerial weapons do nothing but bounce off the creature's glistening skin. Flecks of ice crystals form the scales of the snow reptile, making it shine in the noonday sun. The creature turns its head towards the group of heroes on the ground.

"Yep, that will get its attention," Crystal groans. "Just watch out for its…"

The beast opens its mouth and releases more ice energy towards the group. No one has time to react, they all brace themselves for the beast's attack. They wait for the deadly cold to consume their bodies, but instead, they don't feel anything. When they look up, she sees that Elsa has her hands raised. She deflected the monster's power, enough to save them from perishing in the cold, creating a sort of ice dome around them. It also provides temporary protection, despite the freezing temperature surrounding them.

"Thank you, Queen Elsa," Robin says.

"It is my pleasure Mr. Hood, but unfortunately I cannot hold this forever. My aunt's magic is much stronger than my own, there is no way I will be able to fight this beast alone."

"You won't have to," Emma says confidently. "We'll fight this thing together."

"Are you sure Emma?" Snow asks, with much concern for her daughter's powers.

"Yes,"

"Sorry to break up this assertive moment, but we need a plan," Regina says.

"We need to fight fire with fire," Crystal says. "The thing may be strong, but heat is still its weakness. It's how I was able to escape earlier."

The three who have fire magic let their hands glow.

Crystal swallows, remembering something important, "I also forgot to mention the…"

The sound of ice cracking interrupts her. Something long and heavy is bearing down on the ice dome. Elsa tries to fight it, but the pressure is too great. With little time to react, Crystal lets out a seismic wave, blasting the dome into a million pieces and pushing everyone out of harm's way. It also causes the dragon's tail to shatter, raining sharp pieces of ice down on everyone. Regina, Snow, Robin, and Elsa go one way, Emma, Crystal, Killian, and David in the other. They land against the pavement very hard and are then showered with pieces of ice that could be as sharp as a knife. Several people receive cuts from the shrapnel.

"Tail," she groans, waving her hand to heal David, who received an ice shard to the leg and helps him recover from the blast. Everyone's ears are pounding and their vision blurs. Emma has a cut on the back of the head and bruised elbows, which took the brunt of the fall. Killian has several cuts on his face, which bleed a little bit and his hook is askew from the impact with the ground.

"Bloody hell Crystal," the pirate groans, trying to stand up. "I thought we talked about those magic blasts." He reaches over to help Emma to her feet. "Are you alright, Love?"

"I just saved our lives. That thing has a tail with ice shards sharper than a sword. There's no way Elsa could hold it off for very long."

Emma tries to stand up and removes the tiny shard from her head. She wasn't familiar with healing, just yet, but she manages to make her hand glow and the gash to close up. She then turns to Killian and waves her hand over him, his wounds become healed, leaving no mark.

"Where's Snow?" the prince asks as Crystal heals her knees and removes the ice stuck in her arm.

On the other side of the pavement, Snow kneels over Elsa, who has a gash on her forehead and is lying unconscious most likely stunned by the attack. The former princess is ignoring her own injuries to help her friend, paying no attention to the ice shard lodged in her leg and the one piece that has cut her hand. Regina nearly had her eye taken out and had to heal several cuts she had on her back. Robin, with his arrows laying all over the street, must remove a piece of sharp ice from his foot.

"Regina…" She says in great concern.

But before the former Evil Queen can even think about healing them, the dragon lets out another mighty roar. Everyone looks up to see that the beast was merely stunned and they watch in horror as the once destroyed tail slowly reforms to its original shape.

"Oh, that's new!" Crystal shrieks in fear.

The beast turns towards the weakest group, the one with the unconscious Queen and those with very little magic. It glares at them with deep yellow eyes. Regina lets out a blast of dark magic, trying to protect the others. It creates a hole in the dragon's neck, it takes a large step back, causing the ground to shake, but then it shakes its head, the wound on its neck disappears again. This only causes the ice dragon to become angrier. It roars louder than before and takes a massive step towards the Evil Queen, the pavement crumbling under its weight and causing the windows of the nearby shops to rattle violently. She keeps the blasts coming, trying to keep it away from the wounded group and prevent it from opening its mouth.

Seeing the distress, David grabs his sword up and begins to charge at the thing without thinking. Crystal stops him by creating a line of magic, causing him to bounce back onto the ground.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" the prince shouts.

"That thing will kill you if you confront it like that."

"I'm not letting my wife die!"

"No one's going to die, but you have to think before you act," the girl insists.

A voice calls out from the other side. "ANY PLAN OF ANY KIND IS WELCOME!" Regina screams.

"Emma, we need to create fire, drive the thing away," Crystal says, her heart pounding.

"Okay," the Saviour says.

Both sorceresses concentrate and a wall of flames appear a foot in front of Regina. The beast stumbles back at the appearance of heat, it's tail smashing a section of the pharmacy. Henry, Ashley, Archie with Pongo, Sneezy and a few others who had taken refuge in the building scream out in fear. Fortunately, the section of the building was free of people and it only knocked over the shelves and broke the window of the shop. Sneezy hurries everyone into the back room, trying to keep them safe and huddled together. The creature begins hobbling around, swinging its tail in all directions, trying to avoid the flames.

"Henry!" Emma shrieks and she tries to go towards him. Crystal catches her shoulder.

"He's fine, I can see his energy, I need you here to keep this going."

Tears fill the blonde's eyes, she's afraid for her son, but also for her mother and friends. They need to get rid of this thing. Regina is also trying to reach Henry but she is stopped when the dragon's tail lands inches from her. She turns and feeds the fire with her own magic so they can kill this thing sooner.

The wall of flames becomes higher and the hot blaze begins to affect the dragon more, water begins to pool underneath it and its glistening scales lose their shine. Several of its icicles on its back begin to melt too and the yellow in the beast's eyes begins to fade. It lets out louder roars, those of fear and anger. In a last desperate attempt to escape, it flies upwards, out of reach of the heat.

Once it has cleared the heat, the melted parts reform with ease and the now furious creature, turn back for its victims. It then releases icicles from its back while in mid-air, causing the creators of the fire to dive to the side to protect the others and avoid being impaled.

"That is also a new one," Crystal hisses through her teeth.

"We need to kill this thing before it destroys Storybrooke!" Emma pants. "But how?"

 _Things are heating up, pun intended._


	8. Chapter 8: One-Time Hero

Chapter 8: One-Time Hero

Meanwhile, inside the clock tower, Belle is watching the scene in utter horror. She's concerned for her friends' safety and fears for their lives. Having no weapons to help in battle, she frantically tries to call Rumpel to get him involved.

"Belle, darling how can I serve you," the dark man answers.

"Rumpel you have to help the others. There's a creature out there. I think it's an ice dragon and I think the Snow Queen made it. It's going to kill everyone and destroy the town!"

"Why should I concern myself with the beast? I did not provoke it."

Belle cannot believe her ears. "Your own daughter is out there risking her life!" She watches as The Dark Star Pharmacy is partially destroyed. "And your grandson is in danger too! It keeps reforming itself after every attack, you need to help them!"

The Dark One shakes his head only to himself. He knew he had no need to care about whether the dragon destroyed the town or not, all the more reason to free himself from the dagger so that he may be able to do what he pleased without restraint. He did care a little bit about his own child and grandson, but he knew what his daughter might say if he were to appear. She'd tell the heroes everything and they'd turn on him. He felt much betrayal when he found out that Crystal had told Belle the entire story. He had been viewing the conversation from his crystal ball, but fortunately, his wife didn't believe her. His plan was still a secret. He wanted to punish his daughter for disobeying him, possibly by torturing the pirate, but this was much better. His secret would die with her and he knew that Hook couldn't die as long as the Dark One had his heart. He felt no desire to go running to the rescue, that was not his purpose.

There is another roar before the dragon takes flight again. The young woman loses sight of it, afraid for those on the ground. The phone shakes in her hand as she stares out the window. Suddenly, the entire building rocks and the sounds of bricks being torn up reach the terrified woman, causing Belle to scream.

"Belle, what is it?"

"It landed on the roof!" she screams, tears in her eyes. She narrowly avoids falling ceiling tiles. She slips on a few books that had been thrown to the floor from the impact, during her attempt to escape. She's about the go through the front door when the overhead wires break free from their cables and create a dangerous field of electricity that could kill her if she went any further. She turns for the elevator, but it is too damaged to get out of this hellish prison.

"I can't get out!" she gasps. She doesn't know what to do next. She can feel the temperature dropping and the sound of the clock shattering as the beast continues to create a path of destruction. She starts throwing books at the nearest window to shatter it and make her way out.

This plea for help from his beloved wife causes the demonic man to teleport immediately into the library. He finds his wife about to exit the broken window.

"Belle!" Rumpel says as he rushes to her.

He grabs her hand and the two vanish from the building, which is weakening because of the dragon's weight and the claws digging into the roof. They reappear in his shop.

Belle can barely breathe as she watches what her husband does next. He stands in the doorway and begins creating a protection spell.

"What are you doing?" she cries out.

"Protecting you," he answers, without turning around.

"What about the others?"

"You are my priority."

"Your daughter is out there, most likely about to die and you're here…" she cannot get the words out. She cannot believe what he's doing. He's being a coward all over again, worrying only about himself and her. She doesn't need to be saved, she needs to help the others, those who are in more peril.

Her eyes go towards the safe behind the counter. She promised herself that she wouldn't do this unless it was absolutely necessary, but the man is truly being the Dark One. She throws the picture to the side and opens it, grabbing the handle of the crooked dagger.

When Rumpel turns around after finishing his spells, he freezes in horror.

"Belle what are you…"

"You're being selfish again Rumpel," she shouts angrily, tears streaming down her face. "You're worrying about yourself and not others who love you, others who need your help."

"Belle, you don't know what you're doing…"

"I married you knowing that you could change and I still believe that. If you truly are the man I know you to be, I won't need to use this… Go help your family or I will command you to do it…"

Rumpel's heart pounds in his chest as he stares at his wife. He can tell she is serious about her threat, his heart broke slightly knowing that she still didn't fully trust him. He cannot believe that she would use it like this, and what's worse is that she has the real dagger this time! Somehow he foolishly put it in the safe instead of keeping it on his person. He knows his wife is a hero and she will do anything to help those she cares about, but using his weapon like this is unfair, to say the least. He can see that it is hard for Belle, she's crying furiously and she's torn up inside knowing that this was wrong. She knew she had no other choice, he needed to help.

"Belle please."

The young heroine lays the dagger on the counter and glares at him. "I won't use it if you go and help. Be the man I know you are and save your daughter!"

Rumpel swallows before vanishing. He ends up on the street next to Crystal. The heroes have regrouped and the Saviour and his daughter are keeping the beast occupied with their magic while Regina heals the wounded.

"D-Dad?!" she gasps in shock. The astonishment quickly turns into anger, she wants to confront him about his actions, but the battle with the dragon is obviously more important at the moment.

"What are we up against?" he asks, trying to avoid a look at Hook.

Regina is on the ground, healing Elsa. "A creation by the Snow Queen that can regenerate itself as fast as our magic can blast it."

"It's still vulnerable to heat," David adds.

"They tried a wall of fire earlier, but it flew out of range," Robin adds.

"We need to take out its wings, then melt this damn popsicle," Crystal says.

"I agree with my daughter, we must take away its means of escape," Rumpel nods. "But we will need to draw the beast from its perch." He turns to look at Hook. "Perhaps some live bait…"

Killian glares at the crocodile, he wants to rush at the demon and end him once and for all, but Rumpel subtly puts his hand in his jacket pocket and gives the pirate's precious organ a squeeze. The poor man grimaces in pain, before speaking up.

"I will lure the beast away from the tower," he sighs, still glaring at Rumpelstiltskin.

"Once it's on the ground, all those without magic will keep it occupied long enough for me to take out its wings."

"What about Elsa? She's in no shape to fight?" Regina asks.

"The princess will take her to a sheltered place. The Outlaw and Prince will help Pirate lure it into position. Then the rest of you with pyrokinesis will surround it in the fire," the Dark One finishes.

Emma grabs Killian's hand. "You don't have to do this…"

The dark-haired pirate keeps his eyes locked on the demonic man who holds his life in his hand.

"I'm a fast runner Swan, I'll be all right."

She gives him a kiss on the cheek. Hook takes a deep breath and then nods to Crystal.

The Dark One's daughter creates a thick cloud of purple smoke to provide some cover and to confuse the dragon. The one-handed pirate couldn't feel his heart in his chest, but Rumpelstiltskin can, as he gets into position. Only his mortal enemy would volunteer him to be live bait as if his life isn't under enough threat. He knows that the crocodile is merely toying with him, torturing him before as the danger of death drew ever closer. He wants beyond all measure to simply turn around and fight the imp for his heart back, gaining his freedom. But he knows that one wrong move will equal death.

Once the smoke clears, Killian stands at the base of the clock tower, ready to lure it into the open. The yellow eyes of the creature glared at him from behind the shattered clock face.

"Aren't you a pretty girl," he says smoothly.

The dragon cocks its head to the side before growling. Killian uses the reflection of his hook to annoy the beast. He continues to taunt it and surprisingly, it doesn't try to kill him with its icy breath.

"Come on, won't I be a bloody treat…"

The wings of the creature slowly expand outwards and he knows that it's time to run. He then begins to run towards the next phase of the plan. The dragon lets out another roar and the dreadful flapping sound of snow-covered wings taking flight ring in his ears. He runs down an adjacent street, knowing what will have to happen next.

He pretends to fall to the ground, knowing that the beast will land in order to devour its prey. The ground around the pirate shakes violently as four ice claws land on the pavement just feet behind him. They crumble the foundation with little effort. An enormous amount of pressure suddenly pins his body to the ground. Sharp icicle-like claws prohibit his body from moving. The pirate pants, trying to struggle for freedom, praying the others will enact the next part of the Dark One's plan. The long silver neck of the creature extends forward so Captain Hook is looking it almost directly in the eye and he can feel its cold breath on his neck and face. He bites his lip, trying to remain brave while facing this terrifying creature.

Then, right on cue, a flaming arrow lands in the dragon's neck. It flinches and then turns to find the source of the attack.

"Won't you be a beautiful trophy," Robin Hood calls out. He launches another arrow, hitting the icy creature just below the eye. "That's right, tussle with me now,"

Killian gives the outlaw a grateful nod as the dragon's claw shifts just enough for him to wriggle free. He then digs his hook into the cold front leg and begins to drag it along the silvery scales. The beast roars out in pain and turns back to its first victim.

Then a sword comes flying out of nowhere, hitting the thing directly in the eye. The pirate removes his hook from the ice and ducks out of sight before the beast lets out another roar and thrashes around in agony, trying to get rid of the weapon.

The Dark One moves from the shadows and raises his hands to summon very dark magic. He takes aim and blasts the monster's wings.

Another ear-piercing roar erupts from the dragon's mouth and it goes on its hind legs from the pain.

"NOW!" he shouts.

Emma, Regina, and Crystal all emerge from different sides of the street and conjure up flames. The fire forms a large ring that slowly surrounds the creature. It lets out more and the terrified roars of pain as the flames get higher and higher, now touching its body.

Snow watches with a barely conscious Elsa from a nearby bench as a large pool of water begins to appear on the street. She is the closest to Crystal and can hear the teen humming _Ring of Fire_ by Johnny Cash as the wall of flames gets higher and higher. The dragon is no match for the combined pyrokinetic powers of the three sorceresses. It continues to melt and tries to escape but the Dark One is damaging its wings to escape. The yellow fades from its eyes as the icicles disappear from its back and the fairly lethal tail becomes nothing but a puddle of water. It lets out one last roar before succumbing to the flames. The white shape disappears and what comes next takes everyone by surprise.

A massive wave of water douses the wall of fire and drenches all the heroes where they stand. For a moment, it looks like the street is completely flooded and both Snow and Elsa are hit by the warm water, it lapping at their knees and ankles. Snow carefully helps Elsa maneuver through the wet pavement in search of Prince Charming and the Saviour and through the steam that has formed from the heat meeting the cold beast. There is a coughing as everyone involved in the plan recover from the unwanted bath.

"David!" Snow says, wrapping her arms around her soggy husband and kissing him.

A wet Robin runs to a soaking Regina and embraces her tightly. "I'm glad you're all right," he says.

"Likewise," the former Evil Queens says, before shaking her damp bangs out of her eyes.

"Killian!" Emma shouts. She rushes towards her pirate and both of them embrace, nearly slipping in the water. "You were so brave to do that," she says in amazement.

"I did what I could so you be able to…"

"MOM!" a voice calls from across the way. A brown-haired teen rushes forward from his hiding place towards both his mothers. The two women leave their partners to embrace their shared son.

"Oh Henry," Regina says, tears in her eyes. "Are you okay?"

"We were so worried about you," Emma adds, kissing the top of his head.

"I'm fine, but that was totally awesome, you have to do that fire ring again sometime."

"We might have to in order to battle that ice witch," Crystal mutters, squeezing a large puddle of water from her jean jacket. She then throws her wet hair out of her face.

"We will have to apologize to Sneezy for what happened to the drug store," David mutters. Mary Margret rolls her eyes, knowing that as the mayor, she'd have to handle such matters. More citizens cautiously exit their hiding places and join the others at the scene of the battle. Among them is a not very pleased pharmacist.

"Where's your father?" Snow asks, coming over to the happy mothers-son reunion.

"Don't know,"

"Well, we'll have to thank him somehow," the princess says happily.

"Oh, trust me, he doesn't want thanking," Crystal mutters, locking eyes with Killian again. The pirate grimaces, Rumpel's way of warning both individuals of speaking about what they knew.

…

Rumpel reappears in front of his shop and waves his hand to become dry again. He swallows a large lump in his throat, knowing the way things had been with his wife. He opens the door to see Belle sitting behind the counter, staring at the Dark One's dagger. When he approaches, her beautiful eyes meet his gaze.

"Belle…" he begins.

"Let me speak first," she insists. She steps from behind the counter and walks towards her husband. His heart pounds in his chest before she reaches forward and hugs him.

"I'm so-so sorry Rumpel," she sobs. "I'm s-sorry I threatened to use the dagger on you again, I…I just didn't know what else to d-do."

"It's all right," he says wrapping his arms around her.

"No, it's not. We're supposed to trust one another when we got married and I-I didn't when things got tough. And after everything Crystal said about you, I didn't know what to believe… I-I was so stupid, I became a coward and-and almost forced you to do my bidding again…"

"But you didn't and that shows that you trust me. And you weren't being a coward, you were being a hero," he murmurs, patting her back in comfort. "I knew you wanted to do something and did whatever you could to help the others."

"But I shouldn't have used the dagger like that… it was just wrong and there's no way you'll ever be able to forgive me."

"I will forgive you if you will forgive me for being cowardly as well. I wasn't thinking clearly and was only worried about you and me. You holding the dagger made me wake up and realize what I had to do. I want to be the man you want me to be and I guess I'm still quite new at it. But I think it is safe to say that we were both the heroes today, helping defeat the Snow Queen's monster and saving the town."

Belle looks at Rumpel, wiping tears from her blue eyes. "Please try to convince me not to use the dagger in the future, it's not fair for me to use you as a puppet."

Rumpel swallows, thinking of the heart that is in his jacket pocket.

"I will if you try to convince me to do heroic acts in the future."

"I will, I promise," she smiles before kissing him deeply. Rumpel pulls his wife against his chest, his eyes not on his loving wife, but on the weapon on the counter. With a quick hand movement, he swaps the real dagger for the fake one. The real one now resides on his belt, where it belongs.

"No perhaps I can tempt my beautiful wife in a chipped cup of her favourite tea?" he suggests, conjuring up her favourite china teacup. Belle lets out a laugh.

…

Meanwhile, as the heroes and one-time hero begin cleaning up from the battle, Ingrid watched the entire scene unfold in her mirror. One might expect her to be angry that her dragon creation was destroyed, but on the contrary, it had worked perfectly. The dragon was merely a distraction so she could prepare for the next phase of her plan, getting rid of Emma's loved ones so she would want to join her family. She waves her hand in front of the looking glass, turning back into the conventional mirror. She looks at her beautiful reflection in the mirror and fiddles with single crystal around her neck. It was now glowing a very dark purple, the kind that the Dark One's daughter conjures up when she is desperate. She smiles at herself, knowing what she was going to do next. She had to get rid of her "sister's" family…

Starting with her one-handed sweetheart.

 _A/N: Here's an extra long chapter for you and a good cliffhanger. Thank you for the reviews. To answer the Guest's question, Anna might make an appearance, I'm not sure yet. Stay tuned for more._


	9. Chapter 9: Becoming Someone New

Chapter 9: Becoming Someone New

"Do you think you can fix it, Regina?" Sneezy asks, both of them staring at the half-destroyed pharmacy. The entire town is trying to recover from the recent dragon attack, but everyone is still one edge knowing the Snow Queen's Shattered Sight spell still loomed in the background.

"It won't take too long, but please keep in mind that I have to fix the clock tower as well."

"That's why you have us, Regina," Crystal says brightly. "This'll be a good magic lesson."

"It will indeed, as long as you fix my place first," the dwarf with allergies insists.

"All right already," the former Evil Queen snaps. "Emma, Crystal, let's begin."

The three sorceresses stand in a straight line and raise their hands.

"You need to picture the building like it was before, and then let the magic do the rest, but it does require a lot of concentration, we're basically reversing the damage. It's almost like turning back time, which is nearly impossible…"

"Except for when Zelena tried," Emma mutters, thinking of Regina's recently deceased half-sister who's portal ended up throwing her and Killian into the past.

All their hands begin to glow and the three shut their eyes in concentration. They lift their hands, which in turn lifts the rubble and slowly, but surely, the building begins to repair itself. The shattered glass goes back into its intended pane, the roof reassembles itself and the open sign for Dark Star Pharmacy is soon glowing brightly.

The three let out a sigh of relief and exhaustion, having achieved a great feat.

"I owe each of you a debt of gratitude," Sneezy says, happy to have his shop back up and running. "I'll give you all a 10% discount on your next purchase. Within the month that is."

"So generous," Crystal mutters. She wipes the sweat from her face, knowing the next problem is to fix the clock tower.

She turns to see her father already putting the hands of the clock back on. The building stands as steadily as it always had. Belle stands next to her husband, watching in amazement and great gratitude. The use of magic, although she still considers it dangerous, did have some real beauty to it, being able to fix what was broken. Once the library door swings open, courtesy of Rumpelstiltskin, she hugs and kisses him tightly before going back inside to open the place up again. He stands, leaning on his cane as his daughter approaches him.

"Thank you… Dad…" she says quietly.

The elderly Dark One looks at her.

"Thank you for helping us yesterday and cutting our workload in half."

"It was my pleasure…" he smirks as if she was stroking his ego.

"Now that I've said that, I feel no obligations of what might have to come next…" she warns.

"Are you threatening me?" he raises an eyebrow.

"You took Hook's heart and are using him as a puppet. I may not know why you're doing this, but I can guarantee that I will find a way to stop it."

"Such confidence even after your failed attempt to turn my wife against me…"

"I was trying to save her from the inevitable heartbreak…" Crystal bites her lip hard. "Having any type of relationship with you is like playing tee ball with a gasoline-soaked ball, it's dangerous and someone always gets hurt."

"You always were one for dramatic metaphors."

"Shut up, Dad!" she hisses angrily, her clenched fist preventing her from unleashing magic on him. "I know what you're up to, you may have Belle and everyone else fooled, but if sharing the same blood and breathing the same air as you have taught me anything, you will never be able to change. Trusting you is like letting Freddy Krueger give you a back massage. You won't kill Hook, not as long as you need the energy to power that hat…"

The colour drains from Rumpel's face, not knowing how she figured it out. He tries to remain poised.

"Yeah, you're not subtle with your magical displays, I saw the energy inside and I know you wanted Emma in that hat to power it. You lucked out though because she has actual friends in her life that care about her. And don't even think about trying to suck me into that hat because I will make darn sure that Belle will witness it and trust me, once she sees that, she'll stomp on your heart like you stomped on hers… so many times before."

"You wouldn't dare, your magic isn't strong enough," Rumpel smirks.

"Really?" she says. "I am your daughter, after all, your power is my power, (for the most part). You shouldn't be testing me. You rub the knife in my back, I rub yours… a bit harder." she says feeling very satisfied for having said her piece before she waves her hand and teleports her father back to his lonely existence. She then creates a protective field around herself, something he had taught her, which Crystal is sure he regrets teaching her now. The shield is invisible, but it protects her from her father's magical attacks.

"What happened over there?" Regina asks.

"Just a father-daughter talk," Crystal lies.

"At least he fixed the clock tower," Snow says, rocking Neal back and forth in his stroller. "Maybe Belle is right and Rumpel really is trying to change.

 _Bullshit!_ Crystal thinks in her mind. She grinds her teeth together before lying through them. "Maybe…"

…

"Your power is truly your father's," Ingrid says into the mirror, having watched the entire exchange with glee in the privacy of her ice cave. She was actually proud of the young girl for standing up to her father. He was a monster and the less often the queen spent time in his presence, the happier she was. "Plus, a little love is thrown in there too."

The Snow Queen adjusts the glowing crystal around her neck. The constant changing of colour, from lilac colouring to royal purple truly reflects the young girl's personality and the torn feelings she has within herself. It doesn't matter whether it is light or dark magic, as Ingrid only needs a small sample to begin the next phase of her plan. It was the whole reason for letting the girl attack her, one sample is all she wanted. What happened to the girl during the spell, wasn't her concern anymore. She'd offered the teenager a chance and she turned her down.

She then waves her hand over the mirror, looking for someone very specific. She knew that the only way Emma was ever going to want to be her sister was to have the rest of her family be disposed of. The connections between all of them were strong, a true family bond, but still a bit frail considering the last time Ingrid tried to break the ties. She decides to take them out one by one, giving each of them a specific prison to become trapped in. Once they were all gone, she'd cast the curse, allowing a hurt Emma to come running into her arms. Elsa was also equally stubborn about joining the "family," but if Anna was missing, she had no one to turn to. No one to connect with.

Ingrid has decided to start on the newest connection, the pirate. The dashing man who had just recently started courting Emma. As much as she wanted the Saviour to be happy, he had to go. Their bond was still quite young and would be the easiest to sever. All she needed was the sample of magic, from the Dark One's daughter.

Her mirror shows both Emma and Killian sitting in _Granny's_ , talking over onion rings and some coffee. The two look lovingly into one another's eyes, smiling and holding hands across the table. The signs of new love. Ingrid had never truly felt such a thing before, but for a moment wondered what it would be like to be in love, to have someone who devoted themselves to making her happy, who told her she was beautiful and who trusted her, like she would him.

She watches as the two get up to leave. She knows they will soon be parting, and the time to act was now.

She holds tightly to the crystal and teleports herself from her ice cave.

She ends up in the alleyway just a few feet from the restaurant. She makes sure that she is completely alone and cannot be seen by any passing individual. She twirls the single crystal and few times, waiting as the couple exits the front door.

Ingrid's heart begins pounding, knowing she'll have to act very soon. The wall to which she was pressed against began to frost over, indicating her excitement. She quickly gets it under control and waits.

"I have to go pick up Henry from school and I promised I'd buy him a new comic book. Regina needs him occupied while she works on the Marian problem," the Saviour explains. "I also said I'd check in on Elsa too."

"How is she doing?" the pirate asks.

"She's recovering slowly, she's still a bit shaky and afraid, which has caused a significant drop in temperature in the loft. She took nasty injury yesterday, she's not used to Crystal's seismic explosions."

"None of us are, Love. I warned her about them."

"She's like me Killian, she's not fully used to her powers yet."

"Aye," he says.

She then kisses Killian on the lips. The two then embrace tightly, even though the male counterpart is missing his heart. He wants beyond all measure to feel the feelings he has towards this beautiful woman, the love, the passion, the concern, and care. He can't feel any of it as long as the bloody crocodile holds his heart. He stares at the ground before meeting Emma's emerald green eyes.

"I'll see you later," she says.

"Aye, I will," he nods. He then watches the blonde walk away, down the street and past Ingrid's hiding place. He feels longing to tell her what was wrong and he wanted to tear the Dark One limb from limb for doing this to Emma and him.

As soon as the Saviour vanishes around the corner, Ingrid slips from her hiding place. She goes stealthily around the corner and then touches the purple crystal. It was only a bit of magic, just enough to entrap the pirate in her web.

She waves her hand and watches as her ice gown transforms into a pair of jeans, and a gray top with a red leather jacket. Her hair becomes a shade lighter and now flows down her shoulders, the top concealed by an itchy wool hat. Her blue eyes are now green and her half smile is now completely full. It was unusual to literally become someone else, but Ingrid's been concealing her identity for a long time. She then begins walking casually back towards the pirate.

"Swan?" Killian says, very surprised that she came back so suddenly. "I thought you were going to meet the lad after school ended."

"I realized that I forgot to do something important," she says, in a voice that is not her own.

She then grabs hold of the pirate's collar and pulls him in for a very deep kiss. The man is very surprised by the passion in this locking of lips, but immediately he senses that something is off. Her lips are very cold and not as soft as before. Something inside his body shifts violently as it seems that all the warmth seems to leave him.

Once Emma releases him, Killian cannot stand up any longer and collapses unconscious. The Snow Queen then smiles, quickly teleports the two of them from the street, knowing what she was going to do next.

 _A/N: Borrowing a little bit from Genevieve Kelly's story, How Deep is Your Love, about the Snow Queen being able to steal the warmth of someone's body and knock them out. Thought it was clever. Hope you're ready for more soon._


	10. Chapter 10: No One to Save You

Chapter 10: No One to Save You

Killian's head is throbbing and his body is as stiff as a plank on the Jolly Roger. He cannot process what has happened, the last thing he remembers is Emma kissing him and then everything went black. Had Gold done something to him? Squeezed his heart until he collapsed? Force him to do something like what happened with the Apprentice and then wipe his memory afterward. He doesn't hear any sounds, everything is quiet and… cold.

It's very cold around him, to the point where his whole body hurt. Was he dead? Had Gold followed through on his plans and sent him to the Afterlife? Or was it the Underworld? No, it was too cold to be that…Was this some cold dark place he was forced to spend eternity in? He had done many horrible things in his life as a pirate, but he was trying to change, to redeem himself a little bit, was that enough warrant attention from Hades, god of the Underworld? Was it some sort of frigid prison?

"Rise and shine Captain," he hears a voice. It was very familiar. His mind connects the dots and this very much explains the cold.

He opens his eyes to see that everything around him is white. He's blinded for a brief moment while they adjust for the brightness. He can see his breath as he lays on his side. He slowly attempts to push himself off from the floor and he meets the gaze of a very pleased Snow Queen.

"It's about time you woke up," she says, putting her hands on her hips like he was a child that was late for class.

"You bloody witch!" he hisses. He summons as much strength as he can, despite the drop in his body temperature and rises to attack the woman. Or at least he tries to. He tries to stand up and run but immediately falls onto the ice floor again. The coldness in his body made everything hurt even more. Killian looks to see that his foot has some sort of snow shackle around it, preventing him from moving. Immediately, he goes for his hook, which was enchanted with magic and could easily break the wicked woman's spell. However, his left piece of hardware has been removed from its brace, leaving him defenseless.

"You really thought that I'd leave you with this?" Ingrid chuckles, holding up Killian's silver hook. "Even though it does suit your moniker, I can't have you escaping. Not like it will make a difference before too long.

"What the bloody hell do you mean?" the pirate hisses. He uses his only good hand to push himself up, but this becomes hard against the ice-cold floor of the Ice Queen's cave. He sits on the cave floor, still on guard in case the woman decides to attack. He pulls himself into a ball in an attempt to keep the last of his body heat from escaping. He'd never felt this cold ever in his life. He knew how to survive in chilly ocean waters, but this was the solid form of said element and he stood little to no chance of surviving. His body felt heavy, almost stone-like and he shivered occasionally.

Ingrid goes to where her mirror is hanging and then places the hook on an ice shelf beside it, displaying it as a trophy.

"What I mean is Captain, that you won't have much time left before the last bit of warmth drains from your body. Before long, you'll become just like that poor Marian girl."

Killian cannot believe what he just heard, he was slowly becoming an ice statue, just like Robin Hood's wife. He stands up and begins trying to hack off the shackle around his ankle. If his heart was in his chest, it would be pounding in desperation and fear. He cannot become another ornament, a harmless statue for this cold-hearted witch's collection. He had to get back to Emma. Already he notices that his strength is fading, his body feels weak and heavy. His body is shivering in a hopeless attempt to get warm, but he can feel his body becoming colder and colder with each passing moment. And being in the ice cave does not help either.

"You're a monster," the pirate hisses, knowing his words are his only weapon at the moment.

"It's a matter of opinion because, from my perspective, I'm helping Emma."

"How could turning me into a block of ice help her?" he snaps.

"It keeps you away from her, away from potential heartbreak."

"What are you talking about?"

"I know all about you, the famous Captain Hook, knowing for pillaging many lands and women along the way. Kept his promise of revenge against the Dark One for 200 years… you are hardly a good influence on her."

Killian growls before barking obscenities at the woman. He pulls at the shackle again, trying to do something, anything to break free.

"Me keeping you hear is just the first step in my plan…" She pauses, wondering if she should reveal the said plot to the pirate, but since he didn't have a lot of time left, she figured it wouldn't matter.

"The one for the shattered sight curse, we bloody know all that already."

"That is mostly for the rest of the town, but when I do cast it, I want my sisters to love me and want to be with me."

"EMMA IS NOT YOUR SISTER!" he shouts angrily. His blood should be boiling in anger, but it is mostly slowing down inside his veins. Heat continues to escape from his body. He now feels like a rock, heavy and now even moving is hard. His shivering is becoming slower and slower. His hands and feet are numb with the cold. The cloud of his breath comes out thinner and thinner, with more warmth leaving him.

"She very soon will be, but it is clear to me that based on what happened at the Sorcerer's mansion, it will take a lot more work to sever those ties. The fear I instilled in her and the rest of you over her magic was my first attempt, but Elsa, of course, won her over with self-acceptance. So, this is Plan B, ridding her of her loved ones completely. I started with you because, despite the feelings you have towards one another, it's not love..." she steps closer to Killian, a smile growing on her face. "No matter how much you wish to think that it is. Emma is a broken woman, she cannot trust because she's afraid of getting hurt. Believe me, I know this, I watched her grow."

"How did you…"

"She'd rather be alone than with someone, especially if they are going to die," Ingrid smiles. "After all… Neal, Graham and even Walsh… are gone without having uttered an 'I love you.'"

Killian's blue eyes go very wide, haunted by the fact that the Snow Queen has somehow overheard their conversation at _Granny's_ that night, the one that happened the first time this woman tried to kill him. He clenches his fist and tries to swing at the woman, however, his joints protest and it feels very painful. Ingrid dodges his feeble attempt at an assault and merely snickers in amusement.

"I want her to be with people who won't leave her broken-hearted or alone…" she says before taking a step back. "Like all of you have."

"She'll never join you and she's never been alone! She will fight and she will defeat you!"

"That's what all heroes say, especially when there is no one to save them," she snickers. "Now if you'll excuse me, Captain, I must go to see the new parents who have brought the Saviour a brother."

"If you touch them…" Killian shouts. He cannot move any longer and his body is like a stone. He continues to shout as the Ice Queen teleports herself away, no longer needing to hear the pirate's ramblings. She knows that the connection between parent and child will be harder, so she will go after the weaker link, the child… in the form of a newborn prince.


	11. Chapter 11: No One's Alone

Chapter 11: No One's Alone

"So, do you think there's any way the fairies can counteract the Shattered Sight spell?" Mary Margret asks over the phone. She lays on the couch, completely exhausted. She'd overseen more repairs done downtown after the dragon attack and had just put her son down. She's on the phone with Regina discussing ways to avoid the Snow Queen's curse.

"It's possible, but they need a sample from a previously cast spell. Pieces of the mirror used in the curse, unfortunately, I've never broken my mirrors or delved down into such practices so I'm at a dead end at the moment."

"Right, you… hurt people with your own hands most of the time," Mary Margret swallows.

Regina sighs and nods. No matter how much she's changed, her past would still haunt her.

"Yes…"

"I wish we could find a way to help Elsa remember more about her aunt," the new mother says. "I wish we had a clue of some kind."

"I'd like a clue on how I'm going to end Marian's curse."

"How is that going by the way?"

"I'm as stumped as the day it happened, the only thing I've done is remove her heart to prevent her from freezing over completely. The true love's kiss isn't working for… reasons."

Mary Margret tries not to smile, as happy as she was that Regina had found love with Robin, the man still had a wife and son to worry about and with his wife in grave peril, it certainly wasn't helping anyone. Especially considering the two had spent the night together in her vault.

"Are you okay?" the former princess asks.

"I just wish there wasn't so much pressure on me. You may be the new mayor, but somehow I end up doing most of the work."

"I wish I could help more, but magic is more your expertise and with Neal…"

"I know, I know," the former Evil Queen rolls her eyes.

She hears the sound of David's keys fiddling in the lock to the loft. Her heart pounds with excitement, happy that her husband was home.

"I've got to go, but I'll stop by later and maybe we can have some coffee or something."

"That'd be great."

Mary Margret hangs up and stands just as her prince charming walks in the door. He hangs his gun and belt on a hook and then turns to hug his wife. The two kiss for a long time, happy for some moments of peace.

"How is everything?" she asks, keeping her arms wrapped around him.

"We're getting there, the magic really helped move things along, but there's still debris and the roads to repair. Leroy thinks he and the rest of the dwarves can get it done in no time though. How's the little one?"

"Sound asleep finally. Are you hungry?" she asks.

"Not really, I want to just spend some time with you." He lifts her into the air and carries her bridal style towards the couch. Snow laughs happily as he sits on the couch, her in his lap. The two begin kissing, giving in to the passion and hunger for one another. They hadn't spent as much time as they wanted to, just being with one another. With all the problems surrounding them and a new baby in the house, this moment was precious and they needed to savor it.

Snow begins kissing David's neck and removes his leather jacket. Her hands find the buttons on his shirt, while David runs his hands through her ebony black hair. He begins undoing her bra and sweater when they stop for a moment. Their lips separate, realizing that their son is in the next room and now was not a good time. Someone could walk in any minute and catch them. There just wasn't a moment that they could be intimate, not right now at least. Although, they wanted to celebrate their love because the Snow Queen could cast her curse at any moment and they'd suddenly see the worst in one another…it was hate and anger that no one wanted to notice. No one was safe from its power, not even the couple with the truest of love.

The two make themselves presentable again, but not wanting to leave each other's embrace, they lay on the couch together, David has his arms wrapped around his wife.

"I miss this…" she says softly. "Just time with you."

"I know,"

"Sometimes I wonder if we bit off more than we could chew with a new baby and casting the new curse."

"Maybe, but our happy ending would never have been complete without Emma and Henry. Plus, our lives were never meant to be normal anyway…"

"I love our children and everyone around us, but I just wish that even for a moment, we could be normal, just raise our son and live our lives as everyone else."

"We're not like everyone else," he whispers, kissing her cheek. His head is in the crook of her neck, the two fitting perfectly together.

The two lay quietly for a long time, enjoying the peace. That is until Mary Margret can see her breath. A chill is running through their bodies. The two sit up, slightly alarmed.

"Do you think it's Elsa?" Snow asks.

"No, we would've heard her come in."

The two parents suddenly hear their son stir in the next room. They think that the temperature might've upset him. The two go around the corner and freeze in horror.

Standing next to their son's cradle and holding the tiny prince in her arms is the Snow Queen. Neal doesn't seem to know any different, maybe that it's colder. For him, it was like lying in a deep snow bank, one that was warm.

"Such a beautiful baby, he truly is the product of true love," Ingrid says gently.

David immediately springs at the woman, trying to get his son back, but she merely steps aside and he slips on some ice she'd created. He slides along the floor and crashes into the nightstand. Thinking quickly, Mary Margret goes for her husband's gun. She fumbles until she has the weapon aimed at the woman.

"Put him down!" she orders angrily.

The infant stirs in the Ice Queen's arms.

"Shhh, now I'm no expert on babies, but I'm sure that yelling will wake him up," Ingrid says.

"Give me back my son you…" Snow warns.

"Such protective parents. If only mine were as caring as you."

David reaches under the bed and pulls out his sword, pointing the tip in the Snow Queen's back.

Ingrid chuckles, rocking Neal gently to keep him calm. "It appears we've reached an impasse because I know neither of you will harm me as long as I hold your son."

"I don't know about that," Snow hisses. "I have pretty good aim and I could hit you without hurting him."

"But you won't, you don't want to risk hurting your precious little prince. The one you love more than Emma."

"THAT'S A LIE!" David barks. "We love Emma too."

"Really, because if I can recall, you were both afraid of her after her powers became uncontrollable. And you, dear princess, even yelled at her for hurting him." She points to David.

"THAT WAS YOUR FAULT!" Snow shouts, tears surfacing in her eyes. "You made her feel like she was alone when she wasn't! We love Emma more than anything in the world!"

"Hmmm, it seems that is what you tell yourselves that to avoid the fact that you left her alone for 28 years. Put her in a wardrobe into a world that was not her own, helpless as this little one here.

"WE GAVE HER HER BEST CHANCE!" Snow hollers, cocking the gun. Neal begins to stir again, afraid of the loud noises around him.

Ingrid ignores the princess's shouting and continues. "Really? Her best chance. You left her all alone, to grow up without knowing what love felt like. To be cared for. If it wasn't for me, she'd have felt alone forever."

"You are not her mother and never will be! You can never understand the sacrifices it takes to raise a child. You can't feel how painful it is to see your newborn daughter be taken away, to be taken to safety, while we all suffer. We regret it every day that one of us wasn't with her, but we're here now and we're never going to leave her again!"

"As long as she has us, she's never alone," David says. He pokes the sword harder into the woman's back.

"Well, that could change very quickly," Ingrid smirks. Snow White's speech was moving, but it still could not change the past, make up for the years they'd left their daughter behind. She was playing on the weaknesses of both parents, neither wanted to see either of their children harmed.

She waves her hand and a cold breeze sweeps through the room. Then sharp splinters of ice hit the armed parents, causing them to drop their weapons. The gun goes off and this scares the baby. Screams erupt from the soft blue blanket. Then both David and Snow's feet become encased in the Snow Queen's ice before they can react. The two attempt to move to protect their son, the prince even hacking at the ice with his sword, but Ingrid knows what will happen next.

She shifts the baby to one of her and then removes a large ice crystal from her dress pocket. The chunk of ice begins to glow a very bright white. Ingrid then pulls out the crystal from around her neck and allows the dark purple energy to flow through her veins. She feels very powerful and drinks in the expansive abilities that will come with it. She waves her hand over the white crystal, causing it to turn purple and then without warning, aims it at Snow White. In a flash of bright white light, Snow vanishes from the spot she was frozen in.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!" David yells over the screams of his son.

Ingrid doesn't respond and simply turns, aiming the purple crystal at Prince Charming. In another flash of light, he too disappears.

Ingrid then turns her attention to Neal. She rocks him back and forth to soothe him.

"There, there little one, it's okay. Mommy and Daddy are safe, they're just not here any longer…" She holds up the large chunk of ice and the reflections of David and Mary Margret can be seen. "I put them away for safe keeping. They may be your parents, but they're not Emma's and they never will be…"

 _A/N: Random fact: The way I described Ingrid holding Neal is actually how Kai felt when he first met the Snow Queen and sat in her sleigh. Who do you think is next on the list? Let me know in the comments._


	12. Chapter 12: One Might Suspect

Chapter 12: One Might Suspect

The Snow Queen smiles to herself as she exits the Blanchard/Nolan loft, baby, in her arms. She pocketed the chunk of ice that now had Emma's parents trapped inside of it. She sweeps out onto the street and remains in the shadows for the time being. She may have eliminated some of her threats, but not all of them and all eyes would still be looking for her.

She looks fondly down at the baby in her arms. Being a foster mother for so many years had left a soft spot for young ones in her heart and Prince Neal was no exception. He truly was the son of Prince Charming, the infant looked just like him. The little one sucks on his fist contently, slumbering in Ingrid's arms. She may have a place for this child once the spell had run its course. He was the product of true love and would likely grow to have similar powers when awakened at the right moment. But for now, he would merely be in the way.

She looks down at the crystal around her neck. She knew there wasn't much magic left in it, but it should be enough for her to disguise herself and to put the baby in the care of someone for the time being. She continues along the back streets until she reaches the usual hang out of the heroes. She spies her target inside and touches the gem around her neck. She becomes Snow White, complete with the pure red lips and short sleek hair. She also conjures up Neal's baby bucket and places him inside. She then enters the restaurant.

"Hello Crystal," Ingrid disguised as Snow says.

The girl looks up at the mayor of the town. She's sipping one of Granny's famous milkshakes while trying to figure out how to save Killian from her father. She was trying to use her magic to change the threatening text message he sent back to what it was before and show it to Belle, hoping then that she would believe her step-daughter and do something about it.

"Oh, hey Snow, and hi Neal," the girl leans down to look at the baby in the carrier. She touches the baby boy's cheek fondly.

"I was wondering if you could do me a favour?"

"Sure, what do you need?"

"Well, David and I were hoping that we could leave Neal with you for a couple of hours to take a walk along the seashore."

"S-Sure, but why so suddenly. Shouldn't Neal be in bed soon?"

"He has an irregular sleep schedule right now so he's up at all hours of the night," Ingrid says thinking quickly. Her hand shakes impatiently, knowing she has to unload the baby soon before the spell wears off. "I was actually hoping that you could take him home and put him to bed afterward. You do have a key to the loft, don't you?"

Rumpel's daughter raises her eyebrow for a moment. "Yes, but..."

"Well, David and I just need a couple hours of just us. With the whole fiasco with Emma and the Snow Queen, we really just need some quiet time to reflect."

"Okay, sure I can take him for a few hours," Crystal says. She reaches over to take the baby bucket from his mother. Their skins touch for a brief moment and it sends chills up the girl's spine. Snow's hand was unusually cold. "Have fun then. I'll see you guys when you get back."

"Absolutely," Ingrid says. "Goodbye Crystal." She leans down and coos. "Goodbye, my little prince."

She then swiftly exits the restaurant without another word... very swiftly from where Crystal was standing.

The daughter of the Dark One can sense something isn't quite right. Everything about that interaction was wrong. Snow didn't seem like herself; she didn't really smile during the conversation, she was cold to the touch, she's leaving her precious son with the Dark One's daughter (not that this should be a problem) and she left without kissing him goodbye.

The girl stares down at the baby, he looks perfectly fine, he makes soft noises as he sleeps. Crystal scoops him up and notices he's not even strapped into the bucket, which again is extremely weird. She looks him over carefully and notices that his jumper is slightly wet. Thinking this might be a diaper problem, Crystal is about to take him to the bathroom when she realizes something else… Snow didn't leave her with a diaper bag, or a bottle in case he gets hungry. Nothing…

She takes a deep breath and tries to come up with an explanation. Maybe Snow is so frazzled that she's forgotten some things… or maybe it was a spur of the moment thing by David, but no mother would leave someone with her child without the proper materials to care for him or her, even Snow White.

"Something is wrong…" she mutters to herself. She looks down at Neal in her arms, then picks up the baby carrier and snaps her fingers.

…

Emma checks her phone again. Killian still hasn't responded. She knew he was new to the technology thing, which is why she called him several times instead of sending a text message, but he hasn't picked up. They agreed to meet down by the docks and spend some time together, watching the sunset before getting back to helping Elsa and defeating the Snow Queen.

" _You have reached the voice mailbox of… Killian Jones… at the tone please record your message, when you are finished recording you may hang up or press pound for more options…_ "

Emma hangs up her phone again and sighs. The sunset is long gone by now and the wind is beginning to pick up.

It was very unlike him to just skip out on a date like this. She knew that Killian liked her, a lot it seemed, he would do anything to please her, which was a dramatic change to her previous relationships and she was still getting used to it. Sure, she had been reluctant to go out on a date with him before, but they had had a wonderful time and she had to admit, the pirate had grown on her significantly from the time she'd tied him to the tree back in the Enchanted Forest. He was winning her heart like he promised, but she was still trying to get where he was. And yet, it hurt that he wasn't here, that she couldn't hold his hand and give him a soft kiss on the lips. It felt, wrong.

She walks down to _The Jolly Roger_ and sees that there isn't a soul on board. No lanterns are lit, his quarters are dark and the masts of the ship still billow in the night air, having not been touched since the morning. She walks along the gangplank and up onto the ship. She uses her magic to light the deck for herself, giving the ship a more familiar glow. Her eyes go up towards the wheel and then back towards the bow. Nothing, a ship without its captain. She goes over to the opposite end and stares at her reflection in the water. The moon casts a white light into the water behind her.

"Oh Emma," she says to herself. "What happened to you? One minute you're a nobody living in Boston trying to hunt down clients, the next you're a saviour living in Storybrooke trying to defeat a human snow blower?"

She'll admit that she loves her parents, brother, Henry and even Regina and she had similar feelings for Hook, but she missed how simple her life could be when the worst thing about she had to worry about was trying to chase down a suspect while wearing two-inch heels.

Suddenly, her phone buzzes in her pocket. Her heart skips a beat, hoping that it was Killian, calling to explain why he never showed up, but instead, the caller ID reads, _Crystal_.

"Hey Crystal, what's up?"

"Emma, you need to come home right now."

"Why what's wrong?"

"I'm not a 100% sure but as far as I can tell, your parents were either trying to make an indoor ice rink or the Snow Queen just paid them a visit…"


	13. Chapter 13: One by One

Chapter 13: One by One

Emma pulls in behind the loft having sped across town as fast as her bug could carry her. She slams open the door and runs towards her parent's room, except she slips and falls flat on her back.

"Are you okay?" Crystal asks, going over to help her up. Rumpel's daughter still holds onto the Saviour's baby brother, who the blonde could see was trying to fall asleep.

"I'm fine," she says, standing up again.

"I should've warned you about the ice,"

"I'm fine now where are Mom and Dad?"

Emma pushes past her friend and looks where one might expect her parents to be resting, except the entire room was cold; frost covered the hardwood floor and even appeared on Neal's crib. Her father's sword lay on the floor soaking wet and his gun is by the doorway.

"Where the hell could they be?" Emma hisses, her heart pounding anxiously.

"I don't really know, I've searched the entire loft and even tried their cell phones. Something is very wrong Emma."

"I noticed."

"I'm glad I listened to my instinct, someone who was supposed to be your mom dropped Neo in my arms."

"Wait what do you mean **supposed to be**?"

"I don't think it was Snow who gave me Neal. I think it was someone posing as your mother to dump the baby off."

"Who though?"

"I bet you ten bucks you can't guess. Her skin was ice cold."

"Ingrid!" Emma hisses angrily and clenches her fists. Immediately, a lightbulb above the two of them explodes in a shower of sparks and glass. Neal wakes up and starts crying in alarm.

"Control Emma, we talked about this," Crystal scolds her, trying to settle the infant down again. The Dark One's daughter uses her powers to repair the damage. "If it was Snow Cone Queen, where's the real Snow?"

Emma is fighting back tears of great distress. "That bitch is going to pay dearly. She messed with the wrong family. She won't take what matters most to me…"

Something suddenly clicks in Crystal's mind, remembering her own confrontation with the Ice Queen. "Oh my God…" the girl immediately fishes her phone out of her pocket. She frantically tries to dial a number with the screaming infant still in her arms.

"What?!" Emma asks, very alarmed by her friend's shift in mood.

"When was the last time you saw Henry?"

"A couple hours ago why?"

"Is Regina with him?"

"She should be…" Emma answers, getting increasingly frustrated with every passing moment because of the lack of explanation.

Crystal turns her attention back to her phone, finally putting Neal down in his baby carrier, not able to multi-task at the moment. She gives the little one a pacifier and this settles him enough for her to make her call in peace. She paces back and forth anxiously. "Come on, come on Regina pick up." she hisses; the lights in the loft flickering more intensely as both sorceress' magic is going haywire with their strained emotions.

"CRYSTAL WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?!" Emma shouts, causing another light bulb to explode. The Saviour puts her hand on Crystal's shoulder to stop her frantic pacing.

"T-The Snow Queen, when she found me in the forest, she told me that you would want to join her family when no one is left…"

"WHAT? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I kind of forgot that she said it because there was a giant ice dragon trying to kill me and destroy the town."

Emma is now crying desperately and frantically running her hands through her hair.

"She wants you to join her demented family willingly so that would mean…"

The blonde grabs Crystal's phone and immediately dials Henry's number.

" _You have reached the voice mailbox of… Henry Mills_."

The Saviour hurtles the phone across the room and it smashes against the wall. Although most people would be distressed by the destruction of their device, Crystal was as frantic, if not more so and didn't care in the least.

"When was the last time you saw Hook?" she asks. The fear growing within her, Ingrid wouldn't even have to worry about killing Killian as her father was half-way there already.

"Get in the car!" Emma says, still not thinking completely straight. "We have to find Regina and Henry before…"

They don't even have to finish the sentence as both women are out the door with the baby in tow running for the Evil Queen's house.

…

Meanwhile, Regina, Robin, Elsa, and Henry are searching through a stack of the former Evil Queen's spell books, still searching for a cure for Marian. They sit in the library pouring over anything they can find about ice magic. Belle had left them the key to lock up as she when home to her husband. The four of them were growing tired of reading about old myths and lore of yetis and mountain monsters, nothing at all useful.

"You'd think Grandpa would've taught you something about ice magic when he tutored you," Henry groans, bringing another heavy load of books to the table.

"He always was more interested in the Dark Arts," Regina muttered, turning a page of the book.

"I just wish I could do more to help," Elsa sighs heavily as well. She's examining a volume on the Rock Trolls, see if they had anything useful. "An act of true love saved Anna before, so why didn't work for you, Sir Hood?"

Robin swallows heavily and gives a sideways glance at Regina, who does her best to not blush. She keeps her eyes on the aged page which had ancient runes printed all over it.

"It… it might be stronger than we anticipated," he says quickly. "It might take more than true love this time."

"That might be true, she might be using dark magic as well," Elsa nods, not really catching on to the implication that Robin may not love Marian anymore.

Henry sits in the corner and puts his headphones in before picking up a large, dusty book. Secretly, he slipped a comic book behind the volume and began reading that instead. He knew he should be helping, but he already reads enough in school and he needs a break.

"Are these all your spell books Regina?" Robin asks, adding another to the pile.

"I don't think so. I might've kept a few back in my vault. I'll be right back."

Then the dark-haired sorceress teleports herself into the dark confines of her vault. She glances sideways once to where she and Robin had spent the night together not long ago. Even though the guilt was eating away at her, for Marian being incapacitated, she still felt very satisfied and happy. She'd been miserable all her life and to finally be intimate with someone she truly loved, it wasn't hard to feel gratified for it. She assumes that there was still a bit of the Evil Queen inside of her, pleased for having the dashing outlaw to herself.

She begins searching through some of the books on her shelves when she suddenly senses that something is off. The temperature has dropped significantly, even for her vault. She turns around but doesn't see anything.

 _Maybe some of Elsa's magic followed me her_ e, she thought.

Grabbing the remainder of her spell books, Regina waves her hand in the air, planning to go back to the library except nothing happens.

She tries again and still nothing. She tries to conjure up a fireball, but nothing appears in the palm of her hand.

Very concerned, but not panicking, she rushes to the door of her vault, only to find the door completely covered with a thick layer of ice.

"What the hell?" she gasps. She tries her magic again but still, nothing happens. Something is very wrong, her magic has been neutralized and apparently, the Ice Queen has found her, now trying to seal her in.

Dropping the armful of books, she finds a nearby sword and tries to hack at the ice surrounding the exit. It doesn't do anything, except cause the sword to shatter like a piece glass. Regina chucks a heavy stone and the stone falls to pieces. With her heart pounding Regina can see through a faint window that her entire vault has been covered with a thick sheet of ice. The former Evil Queen shivers slightly and immediately tries to find something to make fire with. While doing so, she tries to keep a level head, trying to call Robin or someone on their cell phone. She is afraid that Henry is now in danger as well.

"Damn!" she hisses when there's no reception. She notices the cloud of mist as she breathes out. She pulls her black coat tighter around herself. She won't last more than a few hours in this tomb in the freezing temperatures

She begins tearing through the shelves, looking for anything to try and thaw her frozen situation.

…

"What could be keeping her so long?" Robin wonders. He stares out the window of the library even though she was more likely to materialize inside.

"Maybe she found something and is trying to make it," Henry suggests.

"Maybe," the outlaw sighs. Suddenly, frost patterns slowly appear on the window pane. He takes a step back.

"Queen Elsa…" he says nervously.

"Yes…"

"Are you by any chance creating frost?"

"N-No…"

"No, but I am," a voice calls out. Ingrid appears in the center of the room. Elsa immediately gets up and attempts to defend the two men from her aunt. However, her relative is too quick for her.

"I was going to save this for later, but now is a good time…" the wicked woman smiles.

Something suddenly snakes around Elsa's wrist and ties itself in a bow. It's a yellow ribbon. Undeterred, the Queen of Arendelle still tries to attack, but nothing happens.

"What did you do to her?" Henry shouts, standing up and very afraid. He wishes he had some kind of weapon or power of his own.

"Nothing to worry about, she just can't use her powers to hurt me, or anyone else."

"But I can still hurt you, you witch!" the outlaw says angrily. Robin grabs the dagger he always keeps on his belt and throws it at the cold-hearted villain.

Without a second thought, the Snow Queen deflects it and then throws the archer against the wall. He finds himself unable to move as a thick layer of ice, similar to the one that entrapped Regina in her vault, has him pinned to the wall. He struggles in a desperate attempt to help Elsa and Henry.

"Poor hero," Ingrid scoffs. "Doesn't know when he's beaten."

"He'll die if you leave him like that!" Elsa says, preparing to physically fight her aunt if she had to.

"No, he won't. It'll only be temporary and by the time Emma gets here, we'll be long gone to join the others."

"We…" Henry begins before a cold gust of wind cuts off his words. Robin Hood watches in horror as the three figures vanish in a cloud of snow.

"NO!" he shouts, struggling with all his strength to get free. He prayed that Regina would come back soon, or Emma because things just got a whole lot worse for the heroes.


	14. Chapter 14: One Goal

Chapter 14: One Goal

Robin Hood struggled desperately, frozen to the wall with no way to escape. His body temperature was dropping at every moment, he shivered more frequently. The darkness in the library was not doing him any favours either. His body had become numb with the ice and the struggling only made it worse. With no other options, he began calling out for someone to help him.

"Help!" he felt stupid doing it as Robin Hood never called for help. He was the hero of Sherwood Forest, someone to be feared heralded as the greatest outlaw known to man or at least the Enchanted Forest. He was a great fighter against the Sheriff of Nottingham, but the magic was something completely different. His bow and arrows never stood a chance and yet he loved a woman with magic…

…

"Why isn't Regina picking up?" Crystal growls angrily.

"I don't know," Emma snaps as they speed through the streets. "Do you see them anywhere?"

Crystal is searching the town with her special vision, but so far, the auras she sees are not their family or friends. She can see Ruby and Granny with their accelerated heart rates as creatures of the moon in the diner, she can see the distinct green flash of Archie as well as the white gleam of his dog Pongo walking along by the harbour, but no Regina, or Henry, or Elsa, or Killian. As they near the clock tower, the Dark One's daughter can see the damage; it's covered in ice magic and there's only one human silhouette inside. It's green and has the faint image of an arrow. He's surrounded by dark white magic.

"Stop the car!" Crystal shrieks. Emma pulls over and Crystal rushes inside the library without another word. The place is still freezing cold, an obvious sign of Ingrid being there. She spots Robin frozen to the wall.

"Oh my god Robin!" She shouts in pure shock. She races over and conjures up some fireballs. The outlaw flinches in fear, afraid that she's going to throw them at him, but instead she lets the balls of heat float on her palms and holds them near his iced prison. The heat is a godsend for him as the ice begins to melt, pooling as water on the floor and his body begins to regain feeling. Emma rushes in, carrying Neal's bucket and goes over to the two.

"Robin, what happened? Where's Henry?!" the Saviour asks, very distressed and frantic.

"The Snow Queen took them."

"THEM?!"

"Elsa and Henry,"

"Why didn't Elsa stop them?" Crystal asks

"The witch, she put something around the queen's wrist and it stopped her powers."

"Where did she take them?!" Emma says practically panicking. She has to grab a nearby shelf to steady herself from the fear, shock, and emerging anger. The lights above them flicker as Emma Swan becomes angrier, Ingrid has awoken the Mama bear.

"My guess is her cave," Crystal says as Robin is finally freed from the ice that encased him. He rubs his hands together and blows on them to bring back some warmth. She conjures up a dry jacket for him to wear and keeps her palm ignited so the outlaw can continue to warm himself "Did she say anything else?"

"Only that they were going to join the others."

Emma's heart drops to her stomach and one of the lights above them explodes. This awakens Neal and he begins to scream. Annoyed, Crystal reaches down and picks him up. Emma has her fists clenched tightly and tears are pushing their way to the surface of her eyes. Immediately, she turns around, storming towards the door.

"WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!" Crystal shouts over the crying baby.

"To deal with this bitch…"

Instinctively, Rumpel's daughter conjures up a barrier, preventing the Saviour from leaving.

"WHAT THE HELL CRYSTAL?! LET ME THROUGH!"

"We need to think about this carefully. If we run blindly into danger, she'll have us as ice sculptures in no time."

"That's probably what Henry and Elsa are becoming right now!" Emma shouts. She opens her hands and tries to use her magic to break the barrier. "And my parents are already half-way there."

"Parents?" Robin asks in confusion.

"The Snow Queen paid Charming and Snow a visit too" the teen grunts. She's using one hand to keep the barrier up and holds a still crying baby in the other. Finally fed up, she grunts, "Please hold him." Crystal hands the sobbing infant to Robin and uses both hands to solidify the barrier against Emma's Saviour magic.

"What the hell is she trying to do?" Robin asks.

"She's trying to eliminate Emma's family so when the Shattered Sight Spell hits, Emma will want to be apart of Ingrid's family," Crystal explains having pieced it together in her head.

"What about Regina?" Robin's mind suddenly snaps back to his beloved Queen, she was still missing. "Oh Gods, Regina!"

"Where is she?!" Crystal asks, still fighting Emma. It's like trying to keep a five-year-old away from a new game if the "five-year-old" was a powerful adult saviour and the "new game" was taking the head off the Snow Queen. Crystal didn't like this any more than Emma, but they had to be smart about this, Ingrid was very powerful and she had a lot of the family as hostages. They could be used as leverage against them to get Emma to join the family.

"She was going to her vault before the Snow Queen attacked…" Robin says in a hoarse voice.

"You don't think…" the youngest of the group asks.

Emma shoots Crystal an angry look. The Dark One's daughter can see the fire in the blonde's eye, the anger, the need to protect. Both of them knew that she'd had a rough couple of weeks having to be saved from Elsa's snow monster by Regina and Elsa herself, nearly freezing to death in the process. She wasn't doing her job, but now with her family in harm's way, Miss Swan is in full-on attack mode. She wouldn't let anything happen to her son or her parents and possibly Regina and Killian since they too are MIA. She had one goal now, end Ingrid.

"She must've trapped Regina somehow,"

Without another word, Emma used all of her strength, broke the barrier, causing a massive shockwave to go through the library and rumble at the outlaw and the teen's feet. Neal, who was just starting to calm down, became frightened again and began screaming in fear.

"EMMA WAIT!" Crystal shouts, running after her friend in fear. But before anyone could stop her, the yellow Volkswagen was speeding down the street towards the woods.

Now in the darkened street, Crystal begins swearing to herself.

"Damn it Emma!" she hisses under her breath.

There is no way Emma could take on the Snow Queen alone, she and Regina barely managed to take down one of her "warriors" and it took the whole group of heroes and the Dark One to defeat her ice dragon. Despite how powerful she may be, Emma didn't have a chance in a snowstorm at stopping this woman.

Robin continues to cradle a sobbing prince, trying to maintain those fatherly instincts while likely preparing for battle.

"Give him to me," she pants. "I'm taking him to Granny, you start to Regina's vault, see if she's still there."

"What are you going to do?"

"I have to make a stop first."

 _A/N: Here you go PopPotter, thank you for the great reviews. Guess where Crystal has to go?_


	15. Chapter 15: One or the Other

Chapter 15: One or The Other

 _ **Description of Crystal for readers who have no clue who she is... Thank you to RosettaQueen20 for the suggestion.**_

 _ **Just so readers know, this is merely a spin-off featuring my character which means the details are going to be slightly different. If you want the "canon" story of Crystal find Once Upon Another Time on my page.**_

 _ **Crystal Lillian Miller is the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin and Lillian Miller. She possesses light and dark abilities, striking a rare balance between her father's darkness and her mother's love.**_

 _ **Much like the fairy tale, Lillian Miller was forced to spin straw into gold but had help from a sinister imp known as the Dark One. However, instead of him wanting her child, the two fell in love with one another. They began a secret affair, despite Lillian being married to the king of a kingdom.**_

 _ **When her mother, Lillian Miller became pregnant with his child, the Dark One feared he would lose his powers by passing it through the blood. He planned to consume the infant's heart to regain that power. He also feared the prophecy of a boy being his undoing would come true. He attempted to convince his secret lover to give up the baby because the infant would have magic that could endanger all of them. Lillian decided to find a place where magic didn't exist and procured a bean for the trip, wanting to take Rumpel with her. When she overheard his true plan, she screamed at him and threw herself and the unborn baby into the portal.**_

 _ **Lillian and her unborn baby ended up in Wonderland for a long time, approximately 10-20 years (the exact time is not known). Since time was frozen, Lillian remained pregnant and remained a handmaiden for the White Queen during that time. For reasons unclear, Lillian eventually ended up in The Land Without Magic and finally gave birth to her child, having hope that her lover's darkness had not followed them. She named the child Crystal, with the hope of purity and goodness would be inside her daughter.**_

 _ **Crystal, however, was tormented by the darkness of her father, manifesting itself as a wicked voice in her head, for most of her life and often obeyed its demands. She was rebellious, hot-tempered and ended up involved in gang culture, drugs, alcohol, arson, felony and other crimes. Lillian knew that her daughter had not escaped the darkness, but she knew that as long they remained in this land, her dark magic would never manifest.**_

 _ **However, this changed after Emma Swan, the Saviour broke the first curse and her father regained his own magic. For reasons unknown, Crystal's magic began to manifest outside of Storybrooke.**_

 _ **When she was sixteen, Lillian had finally had enough and confronted her daughter about her behaviour. A fight broke out between mother and daughter and things became dangerous when Crystal's powers appeared and she grabbed hold of her mother in anger. The darkness was attempting to coerce her into killing her mother, but something inside of her still was good, likely the light and love Lillian had always provided her daughter with. Crystal couldn't do it and rebelled, causing a seismic explosion when both light and dark magic collided. It destroyed the family's home and Lillian was mortally wounded by some dark weapon that her daughter had unknowingly created. Clinging to her mother, Crystal begged for her to stay, but Lillian passed away in her daughter's arms after telling her little girl that she loved her.**_

 _ **This caused a dramatic shift in Crystal's life. She completely changed her life to honour her mother's memory and always wore a golden heart-shaped locket to remind her of Lillian Miller's love and sacrifice. She went to college, got a job, and even fell in love. The one problem was that she tried to suppress her powers and she'd fight the voice in her head. This caused some destruction and created conflict in the girl's life.**_

 _ **Crystal started dating Mason Phelps, who seemed to understand her the best and made her feel accepted. After fighting and making up, Mason told her that he knew who she really was and that he was from that world too. Confused, Crystal found her mother's diary and learned about who she really was. Confused, the girl was pushed over the edge when Mason abruptly broke up with her and she nearly harmed the children she worked with. The girl ran until she knowingly broke through the barrier of Storybrooke and arrived where she truly belonged.**_

 _ **The girl bonded with the heroes of the town, discovering new aspects of her powers, but was wary of finding her father. When she finally met him, she confronted him and brought all his memories to the surface. Her anger towards him fueled when she attacked with vengeance. She made a big spectacle and seemingly gave into her darkness, but once Mr. Gold/Rumpelstiltskin confessed that he did love her mother, she stopped. It's all she ever needed to hear and to make peace with herself and her father.**_

 _ **Both individuals reluctantly tried to form a relationship, while she experienced some alienation from the heroes of Storybrooke due to her powers. That is until Regina reached out to her and made a connection that the girl could accept.**_

 _ **At this point in the story, Crystal has been in and out of Storybrooke, dealing with work and other problems in New York before officially moving to the town. Right now she's in the area to help their friends and keep an eye on her father.**_

The bell leading into a very familiar shop rings as someone enters with much intent. Gold is in the back of his shop when he hears it while spinning some gold to pass the time.

"I bought that sign for a reason," the Dark One mutters angrily. "But it seems that no one wants to acknowledge it…"

He stands up.

"We're closed," he calls from behind the curtain.

However, the intruder either does not hear him or ignores the statement completely because Gold hears the person rummaging through the shop in search of something. He can hear objects being moved around on shelves.

For a moment, Gold grins, thinking that it is the pirate in search of the Sorcerer's hat or his heart. The hat would be a valuable trade for his precious organ, but both were locked in his vault, protected by dark magic. It might be time to have a little fun with his old enemy.

He appears out from behind a curtain to see a shadowy figure lurking behind a stack of shelves. He or she does not appear to notice him. He quietly goes to his vault and pulls out the pirate's heart and gives it a gentle squeeze, expecting the figure to hunch over in pain. When the shadow continues their searching without any reaction, he squeezes a little harder and still nothing.

Suddenly, a vase comes flying at his head, he barely has time to dodge it before it smashes against the wall, making the pictures and clocks that hung there shudder slightly. It comes with such power that Gold knows that this is not the pirate.

"If you kill Hook now, so help me I will personally make your life a living hell," the shadow hisses. "Like the Joker, but with more chaos… and death."

Gold rolls his eyes knowing exactly who would make such metaphors. "Back again for another session of father-daughter fighting, are we?" Gold grimaces as he makes the heart vanish and his daughter comes from behind a set of shelves to show her angry face to him. "Because it can surely wait until we are open."

"I'm your daughter and through no fault of our own, your family, I have a right to come here whenever I want," Crystal says firmly. She gives him a smirk. "Because when you die, I inherit it."

"How can I die if I'm immortal?"

"That dagger can't stay hidden forever," she snaps angrily. "I will personally do it myself if I have to…"

Gold gives a confident smirk. "You wouldn't dare, you're too much like Lily, filled with human kindness. Besides, I thought you were a hero?"

"I can be whatever I want to be," Crystal glowers at her father. "I have that darkness from you… they always say that parent should go before their child in death."

"You underestimate me," he growls in response. "I'm starting to see why animals eat their young."

"You almost did do that, didn't you? And you lost Mom because of it," she snarls back. "You wouldn't dare, not with Belle around, if she finds out, you'll be left as the bitter old troll that you are. I'll make sure she sees it. And you know, in packs of wild animals, they will often kill the weak and old of their packs."

Using her hand, she causes her father's limp to come back and lets him fall to the ground in a face plant. He groans in pain and uses his own magic to restore his body to perfect health. He holds his hand out to teach her a lesson, but she snaps her fingers and vanishes before he can do anything. She reappears behind the counter.

"You've taught me well," she smirks.

Rumpel attempts to get his daughter into a chokehold, but nothing happens. He tries squeezing a little harder, but still, nothing happens. He realizes that there's some sort of field of energy surrounding his daughter.

"Too well if you ask me… actually, you know what, Belle found me this charm in the library and with Regina's help, I perfected it. A protective charm, which is only activated when I'm near you, reinforced by that shield spell you taught me…"

She begins searching behind the counter, going through the shelves looking for what she needed. She knew she had to focus as time was limited, she should have spent less time taunting her father.

Finally, she finds the candle… the exact one she needed. The same one Emma tried to use before with the Snow Queen until Ingrid caused her powers to go out of control, plus one could easily assume that the cold-hearted villain let Emma catch her that time. But this time, the witch would not be expecting it, not by a long shot. One might've assumed that her father had gone to retrieve the candle after everyone else went in search of Emma.

"That is my property," her father hisses as she walks around him towards the door. She puts the candle in a shoulder bag.

"None of this is your property and you know it. And besides, even if it is yours, it will certainly be mine when Belle kills you when she finds out about the fake dagger and Hook's heart,"

She then goes out the door without a second thought to the treacherous man she was forced to call her father.

…

While Crystal was fighting with her so-called father, Robin Hood enters the cemetery, armed with his bow and arrow. He knew exactly where he was going considering both he and Regina had… spent the night in her vault not long ago. Guilt overwhelms his stomach immediately, knowing that it was a terrible thing to do… in fact, it was downright treacherous. He was a man of honour. His wife was alive again… frozen, but alive and he could never betray her like that again. She was the mother of Roland after all and his first love… but according to Regina, the former Evil Queen was his true love. The one he was meant to be with. He felt so remorseful for what he had done. The betrayal of Marian should be unthinkable, and she could very well curse him for an eternity in hell. But… Regina was so complicated; she was flawed but doing her best to redeem herself. She was a relatively sweet woman, so beautiful, passionate, and made his heart soar with hope. He felt so conflicted about what to do, the duty to his wife and son or the duty to his heart.

He makes his way through the tombstones, his mind a whirlwind of emotion until he sees the Mill's family vault. His heart drops to his stomach. The entire mausoleum is covered in a thick layer of ice.

"REGINA!" Robin shouts as loudly as he can as he rushes toward the stone crypt. He nearly slips on his way there. He puts his hands on what should be the door and shouts her name again. "REGINA!"

From within the vault, a shivering queen curls up in a ball to stay warm. She's tried everything to escape, everything in her repertoire including potions and spells, but with her powers somehow not working, her options were now very limited. Frost was forming on her magic mirror and the tomb in which her father was buried had the formations of icicles on it. She even tried lighting papers on fire to keep her warmth and her strength up, but the cold extinguished it, nothing was working. That is until she heard someone calling her name.

She hurries up the steps with all her mustered strength and goes to the ice-covered wall that was supposed to be the exit.

"REGINA ARE YOU IN THERE?!" the voice of her beloved Robin calls to her. It was faded and weak behind the stone and ice walls separating them, but she could hear him. Her cheeks flush with the sound of his voice. She tries to focus on this situation could be life and death for her.

"ROBIN IS THAT YOU?!" she shouts back with all her strength.

"REGINA, ARE YOU OKAY? WHAT HAPPENED?!"

"I DON'T KNOW, I CAME TO GET MY SPELL BOOKS WHEN THE MAUSOLEUM BEGAN FEELING LIKE A FREEZER. MY POWERS AREN'T WORKING ROBIN!"

"DON'T WORRY, I WILL TRY AND GET YOU OUT!" he calls.

Regina just smiles. "H-Hurry," she whispers. She hated the feeling of being helpless, that is not what a queen should be doing, but the thought of being rescued by Robin brought out the helpless princess in her. Her dream of being rescued by a knight in shining armour, or rather an outlaw with shining arrows instead.

He grabs his dagger from his boot and begins to hack away at the ice as best he can. The problem is, the ice is extremely thick, and his dagger does very little in an attempt to break it. Nevertheless, he continues to hack as best he can. He prays that Crystal will come and help as soon as possible.

His fruitless effort only becomes a bigger problem when he stabs the ice so deeply, that it gets stuck, but before the outlaw can remove it, the ice, as if with a mind of its own, consumes the dagger completely, encasing it in the growing crypt ice sculpture. Robin steps back in horror. Once again, this wretched snow queen as made ice a living element, a sentient thing that could only consume and get bigger and bigger. His heart pounds in his chest as he tries to think of something.

Fortunately, Crystal comes running up to him in a frenzy.

"What the hell?!" she gasps at the horrific sight.

"Regina's in there and her powers are not working," Robin explains. He wipes the sweat from his brow.

"REGINA?!" Crystal calls.

"CRYSTAL, IS THAT YOU?"

"YES. ARE YOU OKAY?"

"I COULD BE A LOT BETTER."

"I'LL TRY AND GET YOU OUT. INGRID TOOK HENRY AND ELSA. EMMA'S IN A FLYING RAGE GOING TO FIGHT HER. WE NEED TO STOP HER!"

"AGREED, BUT FIRST I'M GOING TO NEED SOME ASSISTANCE."

"WAY AHEAD OF YOU!" the teen calls out. She hands her supply bag to Robin and takes a stance. She can feel the heat beginning to radiate from her hands. She puts all her anger towards her father into this blast of heat and launches a large stream of fire at the ice wall.

The fire hits the wall and little flecks of ice begin to go flying as the Dark One's daughter hits it with her pyrokinesis. A puddle begins to form on the grass as the heat melts through like a literal hot knife through butter. Once the door of the mausoleum can be seen. She stops to rest.

Robin, relieved, rushes towards the door to open it when to both heroes' horror, the ice begins to reform, this time encasing Robin's feet in it as well. The door disappears behind the wall of ice, and this time, it appears thicker and more aggressive than before. It was almost like cancer, trying to destroy its host.

"You've got to be kidding me," Rumpel's daughter mutters angrily.

Robin tries to run, but the sentient ice covers his feet, keeping him frozen to the spot. Crystal tries to grab his hand, but she can see the ice spreading across the grass towards her.

"Stay away!" Robin says.

Crystal takes a step back. Meanwhile, inside Regina briefly felt the heat, a welcome change, but suddenly the ice comes back again, with much more aggression than before. The temperature drops even faster and the ice even thicker than before, spreading further into the stone tomb. The former Evil Queen can feel her body becoming number with the cold and she wonders if she will be joining the Mill's family in the tomb... Although she opted to be cremated when the time did come, not frozen. She does her best to stay warm, but curling into a ball, but inside she's beginning to panic.

"What the hell am I going to do?" Crystal says, panicking herself. Robin is trapped, Regina is likely freezing to death inside, Emma is on her way to certain doom, Hook, Snow, and David are missing, and Elsa and Henry are being held against their will by the Snow Queen, she had no allies to help her. She knew she couldn't turn to her father either, not after what just happened between them, but she had to do something. Her mind races as she tries to think of a plan.

The thoughts take her back to the ice dragon and how it could reanimate itself, it was likely that Ingrid had done the same thing with this ice. She knew she couldn't hit it in just one spot, but surround it, forcing the threat to collapse in on itself, the only problem was Robin.

"I have an idea," she says. "I'm going to create a ring of fire around the mausoleum, meaning it can't regenerate as quickly. It will get you out first and once the door is thawed, you can grab Regina…The only problem is, how to do that without cremating both of you in the process. I'll only be able to hold off the ice so long… But if I don't do this now, Regina will be cryogenically frozen like Mr. Freeze. I'm wishing there was another way…"

Robin looks at the teen in confusion, but then fear forms in his eyes. He also did not want to be set on fire… but Regina was in there, possibly dying, he knew he might have to make the ultimate sacrifice for her... his true love.

"Do it."

"But Robin…"

"Get Regina out of there."

"But you'll probably get burned…"

"I swore to Regina that I would do everything I could to protect her heart and I intend to keep that promise, no matter what the cost. Now do it, there isn't much time left!"

Crystal swallows hard and not sure how this is going to work. She just had to do her best to try and save them both!

Spreading her hands and arms out, fire spews from Crystal's fingers, going in two separate directions, surrounding the outside of the mausoleum. Once the two lines meet, the girl begins bringing her hands together slowly, forcing the flames closer and closer to the ice. She does her best to avoid Robin.

The outlaw is starting to feel the heat, sweat forming on his brow and smoke beginning to get in his eyes. He focuses on his breathing as the flames get closer and closer. The ice is certainly melting, cracking loudly, and pooling on the grass. Robin knew he'd be the first to be free, but he would suffer the fires of hell if it meant saving Regina.

Once his feet were free, Robin hops out of the way, so Crystal can focus more heat on the door. She makes the flames bigger and bigger, taking down the iceberg created by the Snow Queen. It was still hard to battle, the Queen's magic was just as strong, fighting back as best as it could. Crystal is sweating as well because now the flames are practically licking the sides of the stone tomb, giving off an enormous amount of heat and she's straining herself to keep it burning.

Once the door is as clear as it can be, Crystal lowers the flames in front of them, just enough that Robin can jump over them.

"GO!" she screams. "WE DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME!"

With all his strength, Robin Hood jumps over the path left for him in the flames and runs for the door. He forces it open and can see Regina, curled up in the fetal position. There is still ice in the crypt and it's doing it's best to consume everything inside since flames were consuming it on the outside. The heat that Robin has let in causes the sentient element to slow just long enough for the outlaw to pull Regina up into his arms and rush to the door. The ice is sticking to his feet, trying to keep him within the confines of the stone building, but he fights it. With one brave jump, he leaps through the flames, as if his feet had grown wings and runs towards Rumpelstiltskin's daughter.

Crystal stops once both heroes are safe, the ice consumes the stone building once again, but it doesn't matter now that no one is in there. She kneels to help Robin and Regina. He's covered in ashes and soot, smelling like a barbecue, but it's Regina they are worried about.

Her face is pale, and her lips are slightly blue too. She's shivering constantly, teeth chattering and doing her best to stay conscious. Her body is trying to regain its heat. She looked like Emma after she'd come out of the ice wall. Crystal conjures up a thick wool blanket and wraps it around her friend. Robin keeps her in his arms to give her the warmth she needs. The youngest sorceress then finds some dried leaves, puts them in a pile and starts a small fire in the grass. Regina and Robin huddle together, taking in the heat.

"You sure you don't want to take a bath in anti-freeze," Crystal says in a joking manner.

Annoyed, Robin glares at him, but Regina cracks a small smile despite how weak she felt. The teen then grabs her bag from the ground and stands up.

"I have to go help Emma, I'll call Ruby to bring some coffees and to pick you guys up."

"N-no way!" Regina snaps, trying to get up from Robin's arms. "If that t-twisted ice witch has my s-son…"

"Regina you're in no shape to go anywhere. Rest for a little bit,"

"You t-two won't stand a chance against h-her."

"I swung by my dad's shop to pick up a few things, we'll be fine. Rest up and then come to help us."

Regina wants to protest, but the weakness in her body told her she couldn't go. She didn't have the strength yet. That wicked Ice Queen would pay for what she had done. There was only room for one Queen in this town and no cold-hearted woman was taking her son from her. She would help, when she was rested.

"Be safe," is all the former Evil Queen can say.

"I will," Crystal says before snapping her fingers and disappearing.

 _A/N: Here's a new chapter and thank you for the comments, especially PotterPop. I always love Rumpel and Crystal getting into a pissing contest, it's so much fun to write. Please review._


	16. Chapter 16: One Way

Chapter 16: One Way

Killian continues to fight until all his strength is gone. His body has gone completely numb and his skin becoming rock hard. His boots are turning ice blue, meaning the process has started and he knows that there's no fighting it now. Like Lady Marian, he was going to become an ice sculpture, his body completely void of warmth. His movements are slowing and it hurts, like moving through an endless pool of tiny shards of broken glass. The numbing of his body helps, but it is not a painless process. He continues to pant, trying to keep himself breathing as long as possible… at this point, he's praying that Emma or Regina, or someone will find him and break the Snow Queen's curse over him. What's only slightly reassuring is since the bloody crocodile has his heart and he won't perish from being turned into ice. He just hopes that the Charmings stop the ice witch before she unleashes her spell on the town.

A cold gust of wind whips through the cave, causing the ice to advance a bit further up his legs. He stands, still hoping to have a little bit of fight left in him. He knew this means the ice wench has returned. The last time, she had some sort of glowing crystal the pulsated like a heartbeat. She placed it on the shelf next to his hook, gave him a small smile and departed again. This time, as she materializes, she wasn't alone.

Elsa and Henry are shoved to the icy floor of the cave, very close to where Killian stands. He tries to reach down and help them, grabbing the Lad and Queen's hands.

"Bloody hell, not you too!" he says.

"Killian!" Elsa asks, seeing the paleness of his face and his clothing slowly turning to ice. "What did she…? Are you, all right?"

"He is for now," Ingrid says smiling. "But not for much longer."

"Why are you doing this?" Henry shouts, pulling his sweater around himself to stay warm.

"She wants Emma to join her family willingly," the pirate explains. "By eliminating all those she loves, but you made one fatal mistake Love. You can take me and make me into a fancy lawn ornament, but as soon as you mess with her son, you've got a whole family coming after you."

"He's right," Henry says proudly. "My grandparents and my moms are going to find you."

"You mean Snow White and her Prince Charming?" Ingrid smirks. "They won't find you, they're right here." The Snow Queen holds up the pulsating crystal.

"What did you do to them?!" Elsa cries out. Both Killian and Henry look horrified.

"You can relax, they're perfectly fine. They are just in suspended animation, in hibernation if you will. But unfortunately, it's not very warm in there either. The minute the crystal stops pulsing, they'll end up just like you Captain. As for the not-so Evil Queen, well I neutralized her powers with a little magic from the Dark One and she's still trapped in her family's mausoleum. She won't last long there either, it's getting very cold in the cemetery."

"You're a monster!" Henry shouts. Gathering all the courage that he can muster, he runs towards the witch with the intent to tackle her. Ingrid doesn't even bat an eye, she creates a patch of ice in front of the fourteen-year-old, causing him to slip and land face first on the white, ice cold floor.

"Henry!" Elsa shrieks, running to his side. She's horrified to find blood pouring from his nose and his cut lip. It leaves cold droplets on the bright red contrasting the white cave floor. Killian also wants to run to the young lad's side, but the ice has moved up his legs, keeping him in one spot.

Stunned and cold, Henry lets Elsa help him up, wiping the blood on the sleeve of his sweater.

"Please, if you want me, keep me, but let them go," the true Snow Queen begs.

"I'm sorry Elsa, this is the way it has to be…" Ingrid says.

With the wave of her hand, a cold wind forces both Elsa and Henry off their feet. They slide back against the cave wall next to Killian, the cold breeze also advancing his freezing even more. Then icicles in the form of stalactites and stalagmites grow up from the top and bottom of the cave, spreading around the two helpless heroes into the form of a cage. The two are now trapped indefinitely.

"You truly are a witch," Killian snarls angrily, wishing her could attack her.

…

Not far away, a yellow VW bug is speeding through the rough forest terrain towards the Snow Queen's cave at top speed. Emma Swan, tears in her eyes, but a fire in her veins weaves through the trees towards where she knew Henry was being held. She was hell-bent on ending the Snow Queen for the last time!

…

However, she didn't anticipate that Ingrid would be watching from her mirror.

"Your mother/girlfriend is faster than I anticipated," Ingrid smirks.

Both Killian and Henry smile, knowing that nothing was going to stop Emma from finding them.

"You're not going to like her when she's mad," Henry says smugly.

"I think this might slow her down a bit…" she raises her hand.

…

As Emma drives forward, sharp icicles pop out of the ground and she doesn't see them in time. Her front tires plow through them, causing the car to come to a dead and abrupt halt. It happens so suddenly that the airbags explode in the Saviour's face.

"What the…"

Emma pushes the bags out of her face and gets out of her car. She sees the icicles and her hands light up.

"It's going to take more than that to slow me down you, b****…," she says, deciding to go on foot, leaving her car behind. The earth rumbles slightly as her powers become stronger with her emotions.

…

"Perhaps something with a little more spring in its step," Ingrid mutters.

…

As Emma trudges through the woods, going purely on instinct and yet somehow, she knew where Henry was. Once she beats Ingrid and has Henry back, she's going to force the evil snow queen to release her parents, Elsa, and Killian, because she's more than sure that the wicked blonde has him too. She's seeing red and her hands burn with the strongest magic she's ever known. The drop in temperature tells her that she knows she's getting closer.

Suddenly, she hears a growl and out of the corner of her eye, she's something white. She turns to see some kind of animal made of snow and ice prowling behind the trees. Like the dragon they'd encountered, its eyes matched the hollow and yellow colouring as it looks at its prey. It's pointed ears flatten out and its long snout lets out a loud snarl.

By the look of it, it appears to be some kind of dog, it looks a lot like Ruby in her canine form. The beast comes out from behind a large oak tree and Emma has her hands up, ready for a fight. The thing begins to circle the Saviour, still growling, but the angry mother is not afraid. Not in the least, nothing would stand in the way of rescuing her son, parents, and boyfriend.

Now that it was closer, Emma could see that it was a wolf, an Arctic wolf, with little flecks of ice forming the fur, giving it a slight shine from her light magic and the claws elongated and shining. It lets out a grizzly and bone-chilling howl, confirming the blonde's identification of species. It continues to circle.

"Who's afraid of a big bad wolf," Emma says. "Come on Jacob, let's dance…"

 _A/N: Why do you think she called it Jacob? Thank you again to PopPotter777 and for your comments. I'd like to call you my number one fans._


	17. Chapter 17: One is Not Enough

Chapter 17: One is Not Enough

Emma's hand light up with white magic, ready to fight this beast with all her might. She knows her son, parents, and Elsa are depending on her. The wolf's eyes glow a deep yellow now, indicating that it had taken full form. Like the many beasts they've already faced, Emma knows that only heat is going to kill it.

The wolf crouches down, ready to spring, but Emma is ready. When its legs leave the ground, she blasts it with white magic. The snow animal goes flying and lands roughly against a large tree. It makes a whimpering noise as it makes contact. Most of the time, the Saviour would feel bad about wounding an animal, but it was only made of snow, meaning it wasn't alive. She hits it again in an attempt to keep it pinned down.

However, the creature seems to absorb her second attack. It looks like it lost one of its leg and a big chunk of its midsection from the attack. It still manages to stand and shake itself off. Emma watches as it reforms itself again with little hesitation. Like the dragon, Emma needs to bring the heat in order to melt this snowman.

Trying to remember what Regina taught her about pyrokinesis, she lets flames spew from the end of her fingertips. They come out as malformed balls of fire considering how inexperienced she was, the first three merely land on the ground and extinguish without any effect. Knowing she had to get this thing, the next fireballs have more shape and go further. They don't hit the wolf, but they cause it to retreat away from the energy.

It snarls at her as Emma keeps launching more and more fireballs at it, her anger towards Ingrid fueling the flames.

…

"Go, Mom!" Henry calls, gripping the new bars of the cage, watching the entire scene from the mirror. Elsa looks hopeful but wants to find a way to help.

Killian manages to crack a smile as his Swan battles fiercely against the ice witch's beast.

However, Ingrid has a neutral expression on her face. She knows fire can kill any of her creatures, but they weren't that easy to kill. She knows she has to send some reinforcements. She turns and exits her cave for a few moments.

"Don't you bloody touch her!" Killian roars, doing his best to fight the cold inching up his body, turning him to ice. The numbing and sharp feeling of freezing had reached his waist, but fortunately, his arms were still able to move. He tries in vain again to get free.

"We need to do something," the pirate says. "We need to escape."

"We can't," Elsa says. "Without my powers, I'm useless against her."

"We need to free Snow and Charming before they freeze!" Killian says. "And if I had my hook, I might be able to break out of this and get that ribbon off you..."

"But only an act of true love…" Elsa begins to say. She looks at the pirate's eyes. She can tell that he's trying to be brave, his eyes matching the colour of her dress. They showed courage and gallantry, but she could see the fear in them as well. She remembers when her face used to always look like. How afraid she was of hurting the people that she cared about, the mask she wore to protect herself from others. She feared losing her sister and now she feared losing her new friends as well. She sees Henry shivering, flashing back to Emma when they were trapped in the ice wall together. She knows he won't last long in the frigid atmosphere. She can see Killian, still holding onto hope and remaining strong in the face of adversity. She knew she had to do something…

She suddenly hears noises behind her. She sees Henry using his boot to scrape against the wall.

"What are you doing?" the snow queen asks.

"You may not be able to use your ice powers, but we can still use ice," he says.

He finally manages to get a good chunk of ice off the white wall. He picks it up and goes to the front of the created cage. He then starts taking aim at the shelf where Killian's hook and the crystal holding his grandparents are. He chucks the piece of ice at the shelf. To his disappointment, it misses and hits the opposite wall. He had no idea that he such a strong arm.

"Brilliant lad!" Killian says. "You're trying to break the crystal."

"Or even knock your hook down," Henry adds. He stomps at the cave wall again, trying to get a heavier ice chunk, but so far, he's only gotten small shards.

"Let me help," Elsa says. She removes one of her ice high heels and drives it into the wall. She drags it down, trying to carve out a good chunk.

If his heart was in his chest, it would be beating in excitement as his hopes were building. If Henry managed to break the crystal, it would free Snow and Charming, allowing them to give him his hook back, he could free Elsa and they could all escape… He tries to ignore the blatant flaw that he was not likely going anywhere, but the heroes would not leave him behind.

He looks back towards the mirror in search of Emma.

"Bloody hell!" he gasps.

…

"Come on Sparky," Emma taunts as she continues keeping the creature a bay. The wolf is struggling to reform without Emma's constant attacks of fire. It tries to take refuge behind a tree.

Emma knows it's time to finish the job and rescue her son, so she focuses and lets a large stream of fire escape from her hands. The heat makes her cheeks extremely rosy, but Emma can feel the power she needs to get this to melt.

With the tree partially on fire now, the wolf has nowhere to go, water is pooling under its crystalline paws. It lets out a lonely howl before succumbing the heat.

The Saviour smiles and lets out a shout of victory. She extinguishes her hands but decides to let the tree burn because, with the water around it, it was unlikely that it would spread quickly. It might be a good place to come back to warm Henry up once he was rescued.

She advances forward, around the burning tree, going in the direction that the animal had come from. She's even more determined now to end Ingrid once and for all.

Just then, several howls erupt from a thicket of trees. Emma's on guard again, her hands go up. To her horror, many more wolves approach her. These ones are much bigger and would likely be harder to kill.

"IS THIS HOW YOU WANT TO DO IT DAIRY QUEEN?!" Emma shouts. "YOU WON'T FACE ME ALONE?!"

She blasts one of the first wolves with magic, but another wolf springs at her. It's thick, icy paws pound at her chest, sending her to the ground. She's pinned down by this large creature. She struggles to get her hands up, but the weight of the wolf is weighing her down. It's so heavy that it was likely going to crack a few ribs if it stayed on top of her.

She finally manages to get underneath the wolf and blast it upwards. The creature goes upwards, allowing Emma to get to her feet. Her shoulders and chest hurt, all were likely badly bruised. She lets out another blast, to keep the things at bay.

However, the wolves are surrounding their prey. Emma isn't sure if they're going to kill her, after all, Ingrid wanted her as her "sister." One wolf grabs the back of Emma's pant leg, it's icicle-like teeth tearing at the fabric with such force it pulls the Saviour down again. Emma tries to hit the thing with a fireball, but another wolf takes the chance to put its front paws on her back, pinning her down. She can feel is icy cold breath down her neck. She becomes afraid that it will bite her head. She tries to launch magic, but she's too overwhelmed.

Fearing the worst, Emma is prepared to go out fighting if she had to.

Suddenly, a loud explosion of sound echoes through the forest. The wolf on her back is blasted off her and the other wolf holding her leg is hit with a bright flash of light.

Emma's ears are ringing from the explosion and she tries to comprehend what was happening. Her head is spinning until she feels someone grab her arms and help her up. Despite the pain surging through her, it brings Emma to her feet. She immediately recognizes the face.

"Need a hand?" Crystal asks, with much confidence in her voice.

Emma just nods and tries to collect herself.

"I figured you'd run headlong into danger, so I bought a little backup," Rumpel's daughter says.

"Is Regina here?"

"She's still recovering from nearly turning into a popsicle herself," Crystal explains.

Confused, Emma opens her mouth to ask a question, but Crystal then shoves her shoulder bag into the Saviour's arms.

"Hold this for me for a second."

The younger of the sorceresses then conjures up a large ring of fire around them. Despite the heat, the yellow eyes of the pack of wolves stay away.

Crystal then goes digging through the back until she found what she needed.

Emma can see what looks like a round cylinder, almost like a can, in Crystal's hands. The daughter of the Dark One opens the can and pulls out a thick lump of reddish clay. She then moulds it into a round sphere, with a tip on the end. She then grabs a ball of string, sticks it in the clay and begins wrapping around it frantically. Once it's covered in the string, she leaves a small piece loose, having it hand hang down from the strange device. She then snaps her fingers and lit the end with a small flame. Crystal then forces the flames away from them and forms a new ring around the wolves, effectively trapping them. They snarl at their elemental enemy and bark loudly. Some even try to jump over, but the heat keeps them in place.

"You might want to cover your ears," Crystal says.

She then chucks the ball of clay into the centre of the pack.

Almost instantly there's a blinding flash of light and what appears to be a mountain of flames explodes upward. Emma flinches but then realizes that Crystal has erected a shield around them for protection as the massive amount of fire surrounds them and practically consumes everything in its path. The roar of the orange, red and yellow flames seems to ring in Emma's ears. She squints, trying to see what it beyond the fiery inferno.

Within a few minutes, Emma can see the forest again, or rather what was left of it. The ground around their little shield of protection was sheened and black, tufts of smoke rising from the ground and floating into the air. Many of the trees that surrounded them are either gone or burnt beyond recognition. When Crystal brings the shield down, the air is thick with smoke and what once was a pack of fearsome ice wolves, is nothing but a smoking black crater with pools of water inside and flecks of red clay around it.

"Yes!" Crystal says to herself, knowing what she had done was very risky, but after doing the calculations in her head, her plan had worked perfectly.

Emma coughs a few times before speaking.

"What the hell was that?"

"Polymerized Volcano clay," Crystal explains. "It came from an island far from the Enchanted Forest, my dad had a chunk of it in his shop. It's basically like a mini bomb, conducting the heat and launching it into the sky like its namesake. Problem is, it's sometimes hard to control, that's why I wrapped it in the string, once the string was wet from the melting wolves, it made the clay wet, kind of containing the explosion made it less intense for us and the forest. Unfortunately, a few trees had to pay the price."

Emma clings to her shoulder, grimacing in pain from being pounced on. Sensing her discomfort, Crystal waves her hands over the Saviour and heals her bruised body.

"I wish you had waited until you had some backup," Crystal says.

"I know, but I had to confront the witch."

"One is not enough to defeat her Emma, you know that."

Tired of being lectured by a teenager no less, Emma sighs. She knows she reacted impulsively, but that's what a mother does to protect her child. "I know, but can we please go save my son and Elsa?"

"Yes. I also brought this." She holds up a locator potion and Henry's scarf. Emma applies the potion quickly and then lets the scarf lead the way.

…

However, while Emma had won the battle, the prize was far from being claimed.

Ingrid huffs angrily, knowing she's going to have to defend her domain from Rumpelstiltskin's daughter and Emma. Frustrated she comes back into the cave, unbeknownst to her that Hook told Henry to stop throwing ice chunks when he heard her footsteps.

All three that were captive in the Ice Queen's cage had watched the battle unfold and had hope that they would be rescued, and Ingrid could not let that happen.

"What are you looking at?" she snaps at the prisoners.

"Forgot about that family member, didn't you?" Killian smirks.

Something inside Ingrid snaps, she's fed up with the pirate and wants some peace and quiet.

"Let's make that smile permanent, then shall we?" she sneers.

"KILLIAN!" Elsa screams in horror.

Henry tries to kick at the bars, trying to help the pirate, but to no avail.

Ingrid hits the pirate with her ice powers, speeding up the process until it was done. The Snow Queen knew that only true love could save him now and as far she knew, he didn't have any true love. The pirate could also be used as leverage if he was silent.

Over the wind, Killian grimaced in pain as his entire body felt like it had a thousand needles piercing his skin. The ice moved up his body, freezing his arms and it was spreading for his neck. Over the icy racket, he manages to shout.

"Elsa…" Killian pants, knowing he has seconds left. "Tell Emma I…"

He never gets to finish as his skin now matches his blue eyes and a small cloud of white mist escapes his lips for the last time. Captain Hook was now solid ice, allowing his last thought to be of Emma Swan.

 _A/N: A dramatic scene. Please follow and review._


	18. Chapter 18: One Cannot Come Back

Chapter 18: One Cannot Come Back

"YOU MONSTER!" Elsa screams, grasping at the bars of the ice cell, horrified about what she'd just witnessed. The Queen of Arendelle cannot believe that this is what her powers did to Anna… the transformation of a person into solid ice; the last breath taken by the human life… snuffed out in that instant. She cannot believe that her aunt would do this, all to separate Emma from her loved ones and so that they could be "sisters." What had happened to make this woman so twisted and heartless? What ruined the life of a once seemingly promising woman? Her own aunt had turned into the true monster. Elsa always thought that her powers were evil, despite Anna always convincing her that they were not, but now, she could see that it was true, at least sometimes. The Queen has tears streaming down her face, trying to reach out, reverse the spell, do something to save him, but with the ribbon around her wrist, she is powerless.

Henry is equally dismayed, if not more so. He tries fighting the tears in his eyes, but it's just too much as they burn under his eyelids. A large lump forms in his throat, cutting off his breathing. His hands shake in shock, but it also might be because of the cold. He leans his back against the wall of the cave and slowly sits, trying to deny what just happened. His mom's boyfriend is dead. Killian was good person… a hero. He'd shown that he could change, and he made his mom happy. After losing his dad, the pirate showed his mom the love and support she needed to grieve. He gave her hope when she had none and helped mend her broken heart. He was a cool person; he wasn't trying to replace Neal as his dad and he was Henry's friend. He didn't deserve this, he didn't deserve to die alone and in the cave of an ice witch. Henry curls up to keep warm and let the coldness of shock sweep through him.

Ingrid is panting in shock too. She felt immediate guilt for having just killed someone. She had flashbacks to when she'd accidentally killed Helga with her powers, turning her beloved sister into ice and watching her shatter on the ground. The horror of snuffing out someone's inner light, watching them take their last breath. Her stomach turned violently, and tears brewed in her own eyes. It hurt to see the pirate like this, and she was partially shocked by her actions. It had been an impulsive reaction, done out of anger. She knew immediately that she shouldn't have done it, especially to someone who obviously meant a lot to Emma.

Elsa's words echo in her mind. **_You monster…!_** It's what the Duke of Weselton had called her and the look on her niece's face matched that on her then only living sister's face… A woman who said she would never abandon her or call her a monster.

Ingrid looks at Elsa and Henry's faces. She sees her sister Gerda in Elsa, as well as Anna. She can see the pain, the shock, and the hurt that someone could do something so evil. She was losing her sister all over again. She then looks at Henry, his face is filled with fear and sadness and she feels immediate sympathy. Why did she do this? What would she gain from this?

Under much duress, the Snow Queen keeps her composure and through her gritted teeth she utters. "It had to be done."

"No! There was a choice. You had a choice!" Henry barks at her angrily.

Elsa nods in agreement, tears burning her eyes as she grips the bars of the ice cage. "You are a monster and my mother did the right thing imprisoning you in that urn. She protected us from you, from the darkness in your heart and the kind of things you would have taught me."

The jab hurt Ingrid immensely and she's fighting back her own tears. "You don't mean that Elsa."

"I once thought I would never say hurtful things to my family, but I mean every word. You took away an innocent man's life. I once thought that I was the monster in the family, cursed with these powers and doomed to hurt the ones I love. I did hurt Anna, but it was by accident and she saved me, we saved each other. I believed that love can save anyone, but now I know that it is not true. What you think you are giving Emma and myself, it is not love; it's evil and it's one of revenge and darkness."

"You don't know the whole story…"

"I know enough to see you for who you truly are…"

Ingrid bites her lip very hard, unable to control her emotions any longer. Snow begins to appear in the cave, falling slowly. A cold gust of wind shakes the very walls of her powder-white domain, even the mirror shakes with the instability the Snow Queen's powers.

Elsa realizes what is happening. She knew the connection between powers and emotions, how fragile that can become when someone is upset. Emma had just experienced it herself. It was becoming very dangerous. She takes a protective stance in front of Henry, if her aunt lashes out, she will protect Emma's son at all costs. The cold does not affect her like it was affecting him.

The wind increasingly picks up, the snow falls more frequently and swirls around in chaotic patterns. Henry shudders and pulls his coat closer to his body but to little avail. He curls himself up into a tight ball and remains behind Elsa. The teen can feel the tears he had shed for Killian freeze to his face. He was now numb all over and still very much afraid of what could happen next. He could tell that the Snow Queen was upset, angry at them too, but most of his strength has left him and he couldn't fight against her. He just braces himself for the next attack, if he was to become a statue as well, he prayed that it wouldn't hurt.

Ingrid continues to stare at her prisoners, a few tears trickling down her face at their hurtful words, especially Elsa's. The whole cave rumbles twice with her anger and another sharp gust of wind takes the folds of her skirt in an upward position briefly. She couldn't stand to look at them any longer. She had to get the angry feelings inside out of her. She knew that Emma and the Dark One's daughter would soon find them. The wicked Snow Queen knew that once her sister found out about Killian, she'd never accept her and live with her after the curse was cast. She had pushed both too far away from her point of view.

She turns and exits the cave into the fading afternoon sun. The despair apparent inside of her.

 _You can always wipe their memories again_ , she thought through the tears and the large lump in her throat. She could not describe the desperation she felt inside of her to finally have a family that loved, understood, and accepted her. She had waited so long for this, the chance to start anew, finally have her sisters. She had fallen very far from the innocent grace she once had, but we all did. We all had a dark side, an inner monster and hers had unfortunately been unleashed.

She walks along the ground, her dress dragging against twigs and mud. She had to rid herself of these awful feelings, be ready to lovingly accept Emma and Elsa as her sisters. She took it out on Snow White and Prince Charming, and now Killian, all were threats to her happy ending and her family. She'd weakened the Evil Queen and no doubt she'd be back for more, but she had to rid herself of another threat. Express her feelings and take it out on someone who deserved it…

The daughter of the Dark One.

 _A/N: Making Ingrid much more sympathetic, but she is not happy. Thank you to Guest, here's your new chapter_


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